NEED HELP WITH MY 82 maxim 1100

[sleded]

hey guys im new to this board and its great so far!!!! i got a question for yu guys. Ok i have a 82 1100 maxim and every time im stoped in first gear and when i let out the clutch it makes a clunking sound. Its worse when someone is on the back or starting up a hill from a stop in first. when i give it lots of gas in first off the start it does it too. i dont know if its the clutch going or a gear. hope yu guys can help me out on this problem. Hope to meet lots of new guys to ride with!!!

thanks guys

eric

[chevy45412001]

dreaded first

from the wee bit of info you gave sounds like the dreaded first gear crunch.I could be wrong but if all the clutch system is adjusted proper,and the clutch plates are good,you could be losing first gear inside the tranny.Or a bent shift fork.

[Jerry]

Let me expand a little bit. The XS/Xj series, as all of Yamaha's offerings in the late '70s and early '80s have the same basic transmission design. In 15 - 20 percent of the cases, there is a problem with the 5th-2nd gears, used in 1st and 2nd gear. These gears mesh from the side with 'dogs' or fingers on one gear fitting into slots in the other gear. If either the dogs or slots get worn, the gears can slip out of engagement, causing a skip or clunk.

Problem appears to be the dogs/fingers don't mesh as completely as they could. There are two fixes for this. New gears have a taper on the dogs (toward the main gear body) that helps pull the gears together, so one fix is to replace the original non-tapered gear(s) with the replacement gears. Other fix is to re-work the old gears by grinding/reshaping the dogs and slots back to their original profile and add the taper where needed. This is refered to on this site as the Black and Decker fix. A variation used for either replacing the gears or reworking them is to move a washer from one side of the 2nd gear to the other side of the gear. This increases the engagement of the 2 gears by about .040 inches, but leaves open the possibility the gear may rub on the snap ring that holds it in place. The ultimate fix is to find a 2nd washer (no longer available from Yamaha) and have the gear face cut down by the same thickness, and have a washer on either side of the gear. Generally this is not neded, particularly if you use the new, tapered gears, but a few of us have gone this route.

So your options for a fix are:

1. New gears...replace and leave the washer in its original location.
2. Rework old gears and move washer to increase engagement
3. Old or new gears, cut face of gear and add 2nd washer.

You may also need new shift forks and other parts for a complete repair. There are a number of notes on this fix, known as the 2nd gear fix, at:
http://www.rctvonline.net/xs11/

[macnut xj]

Could it maybe be slop in the middle gear case? I know that's another place these bikes occasionally have problems. Or a problem with the driveshaft or rear gears?

[Jerry]

There is a U-joint in the drive shaft that can go bad and cause a clunk, most noticeable under load. Rarely fails, though, unless the boot is torn and dirt has gotten into the joint. Can also be bad motor mounts, causing engine bolt to frame contact under load. Bad wheel bearings, braken clutch spring, ...could be other things that are harder to track down but these are rare compared to worn tranny gears/forks.

If a rider tries to hold the shift lever down while the bike is in 1st, this will cause problems with the fork, usually bending it but broken forks are not unknown. Additinal wear, certainly.

Middle gear can fail, ususally due to lack of lubrication, but does not clunk under load. Failure is usually a siezure.

FWIW, the clunk or skip often happens in the 1st-2nd gear shift, as power is applied in 2nd gear. For this reason the problem is refered to as the "2nd gear fix" even though other gears are affected.

[TopCatGr58]

Well, the 2 XJ's that I test rode before repairing the 1st gears did the skip while still in 1st gear, not shifting into 2nd. One was moderate, would hold a bit until you tried to put too much throttle into it, the other was so worn that anything above idle caused it to skip so much, sounded like a machine gun!!!
T.C.