and then I heard something hit the ground. Now, when I down-shift, or hit a small bump in the road, there's a slight "thud", but I only feel it in the left floor board. And now my shifter is flopping around. I'm not sure what it is, could be a broken spring inside the transmission, could be something more relatively minor. I'll know more tomorrow when I dig into the thing.

I'm going to start by removing the primary, to get to the entire shifter linkage. Hopefully, the answer will be staring me in the face at that point. But, if not, I'll go as deep as I need to. Spring's-a-coming, and I don't intend on relying on my POS ranger to get to work for the next long while.

I plan on getting some photos up of the process, and, just maybe, this may help someone else out in the future.

In the meantime, if anyone has experienced this sort of thing before, by all means, speak up. If you can help narrow the possibilities, that sure would be a big help!

 

Sounds like trans return spring. If so I hope the broken piece doesnt end up between 2 gears!

 

I hope to never need the information, but I want to see what you find.

 

A sloppy shifter peg does sound like a broken pawl spring in the transmission. But from your post I got the impression you are still riding the bike. If the pawl spring broke you might be able to get into first and second gear but probably none on the other gears. I mean you wouldn't be able to ride the bike around well enough to keep riding it.

But before going further and barring any obvious linkage problems other things to look at are the pawl adjustment screw which may have come loose or is wildly out of adjustment. You can check and re-adjust the pawl adjustment without removing the primary. You might need to cut down an Allen wrench to make it fit between the inner primary and transmission though. Pawl adjustment simplified is put the transmission into third gear, loosen the pawl adjustment lock nut, turn the pawl adjustment screw one way or the other with the Allen wrench (just a little bit) until the shifter arm on the transmission (the arm the linkage rod is attached to) moves an equal distance forward and back before encountering any resistance.

If that's not the problem pull the top lid off the transmission and visually check the pawl spring. You'll be able to see the top of it and that's usually where it breaks. Here's some photos of one I worked on that broke.



After I pulled the transmission from the bike I turned it upside down and let it drain out all the oil overnight. The next morning I found the rest of the spring bits in the drained oil.



Like someone said upboard the problem now is those broken bits probably migrated through the gears. You can visually inspect them but unless you have a microscope, lol, it's a crapshoot you won't have a gear tooth problem later on. Changing out the pawl spring is a big job that requires a bit of know how so hopefully your issue is something simpler.

Here's something to help you with the pawl adjustment: (This shows the trans out of the bike, but you can still do it while its installed.)

 

Good to know! Props.

 

I wish I knew 1/10th of what you know about bikes!

 

Great info and detail. Roadking Cal, hope all works out good, keep us posted on progress.

 

Just had the pleasure of doing this on the 90 Ultra. Happened almost exactly the same way as the op. Really wasn't too terrible of a job to do once I got the special puller to get the race off of the mainshaft.

 

If something hit the ground it didn't come from inside your transmission unless there is a huge hole in your trans case...Do a visual inspection before you start removing parts. Do you have a Factory Manual?

 

Nice writeup Soft 02. I hope I never have to use it myself. Good luck to the OP. I hope it turns out to be something simple for you.