Shifting woes - what's going on?

[motoman]

Only takes five min. to pull that shift cover and click in second gear to make sure those marks line up perfectly........left like that and ridden WILL create more repairs down the road shortly. Shift pawl alignment will be the least of your problems. Lock-nut and adjustment screw and 30sec. time.........just sayin'.......

[Jefe]

Thanks motoman for the headsup about the pawl-drum alignment. Topcat mentioned it before, so I should have realized it was more than just the dot-to-dot. I didn't think it would shift is misaligned, but guess I was wrong.

One thing I did do, though, which made me very pleased with myself, was to put one of the mucked-up shift drums into a trashed case half and see how it rotated with my other detent and stop plate.
Unlike the one I put in, which doesn't always stop in the notches of the stop plate, this test arrangement never fails to click down into position. So, I think I've identified the immediate problem of the drum not revolving as one of the following:
1. the detent spring is weak
2. something isn't smooth in the stop plate or the rounded detent tip I chose; in either case, I'll replace them both along with the spring for a configuration that's known good.

Pipes are off and the oil's drained for surgery this weekend.

Thanks again for your help, gents.

Jeff

[Jefe]

no problem no mo

Just for closure, the beast is risen - thank you all for your help.

I finally got around to replacing stop plate and detent with the set that worked well in the hulk case, and glad of the advice to align the markings on the shift pawl with the markings on the drum (they were pretty far off).

Now, it shifts without hesitation in and out of all gears. And good timing, too, because my other XS is now balking with some kind of intermittent lack of spark. But that's fodder for another thread.

Jeff