End of restorarion shifting problems
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 3:03 am
Hello all,
I've posted on the forum a few times as I've been restoring my ebay bike over the last year and finally got close enough to start and try a ride around the neighborhood. A Rickman front fairing is going on as soon as I can get the paint to my liking.
A little history - I picked up the bike from a ebay sale that was basically a newly rebuilt race engine, built for AHRMA racing by a previous owner in 1992, who never finished the project. The engine was never started after having $4k spent on it's racing renewal ('92 dollars, he kept all his receipts). It came with a crusty frame, nice wheels and brakes (a Grimeca up front) and a lot of beat up old parts from its past life. Lots of dollars and work brings me to now.
So even though the thing had never been started since before it's rebuild, it fired up on the third kick and after some fiddling ran nicely even though I had more or less slapped on a new Mikuni 34mm carb untouched from the vendor. With it's high compression piston and 564-X9 cam, it was surprisingly docile, and I slipped into gear and attempted to take off. I had to slip the hell out of the clutch to get going but got it moving and off I went in 5th gear! I was able to up shift to 4th(?) and that was as far as it would go, but it was bellowing around the neighborhood like a beast...
I got on the forum and saw Dew Cat Tee Bob's instructions about synchronizing the selector, did that and now I can use 1st and 2nd gear - and that's it. Also note that I've reversed the shift side to the left with the through the swing arm shaft linkage. So at long last - questions - I see there is an adjustment screw under the shifter spline and that as I rotate it[, the shift arm moves, but what am I really doing? I've seen an older posts about adjustment for improved shifting, is this the adjustment, and if so what should I be doing? Also, since I've reversed the shift side, I'm trying to get it to shift like today's standard pattern, but sofar I've gotten more like a GP pattern, 1st up and 2nd down with neutral in between. In the normal stock gear shift orientation (right side), is the shift pattern 1 down and 4 up, or is it reversed? When I try to shift the gears with a vice grip on the transmission output shaft and turning the wheel (plugs out), after a fashion I can go through the gears, but it is hard to get the shaft in the position so that the selected gear actually engages - normal?. When I'm riding the bike and I try to shift up past 2nd, it just stops and won't go any further. In my searching of past posts, I saw reference to a method of shifting that was supposed to help, (" hold down the shifter until you start to engage the clutch"), I haven't tried yet...
Anyway, any insight as to what I might need to do to get a larger gear range (!) would be greatly appreciated. After more than a year of sweating over this thing, the short blasts around the neighborhood have left me with a serious itch to scratch.
Thanks for any help and suggestions
Regards,
Jack
I've posted on the forum a few times as I've been restoring my ebay bike over the last year and finally got close enough to start and try a ride around the neighborhood. A Rickman front fairing is going on as soon as I can get the paint to my liking.
A little history - I picked up the bike from a ebay sale that was basically a newly rebuilt race engine, built for AHRMA racing by a previous owner in 1992, who never finished the project. The engine was never started after having $4k spent on it's racing renewal ('92 dollars, he kept all his receipts). It came with a crusty frame, nice wheels and brakes (a Grimeca up front) and a lot of beat up old parts from its past life. Lots of dollars and work brings me to now.
So even though the thing had never been started since before it's rebuild, it fired up on the third kick and after some fiddling ran nicely even though I had more or less slapped on a new Mikuni 34mm carb untouched from the vendor. With it's high compression piston and 564-X9 cam, it was surprisingly docile, and I slipped into gear and attempted to take off. I had to slip the hell out of the clutch to get going but got it moving and off I went in 5th gear! I was able to up shift to 4th(?) and that was as far as it would go, but it was bellowing around the neighborhood like a beast...
I got on the forum and saw Dew Cat Tee Bob's instructions about synchronizing the selector, did that and now I can use 1st and 2nd gear - and that's it. Also note that I've reversed the shift side to the left with the through the swing arm shaft linkage. So at long last - questions - I see there is an adjustment screw under the shifter spline and that as I rotate it[, the shift arm moves, but what am I really doing? I've seen an older posts about adjustment for improved shifting, is this the adjustment, and if so what should I be doing? Also, since I've reversed the shift side, I'm trying to get it to shift like today's standard pattern, but sofar I've gotten more like a GP pattern, 1st up and 2nd down with neutral in between. In the normal stock gear shift orientation (right side), is the shift pattern 1 down and 4 up, or is it reversed? When I try to shift the gears with a vice grip on the transmission output shaft and turning the wheel (plugs out), after a fashion I can go through the gears, but it is hard to get the shaft in the position so that the selected gear actually engages - normal?. When I'm riding the bike and I try to shift up past 2nd, it just stops and won't go any further. In my searching of past posts, I saw reference to a method of shifting that was supposed to help, (" hold down the shifter until you start to engage the clutch"), I haven't tried yet...
Anyway, any insight as to what I might need to do to get a larger gear range (!) would be greatly appreciated. After more than a year of sweating over this thing, the short blasts around the neighborhood have left me with a serious itch to scratch.
Thanks for any help and suggestions
Regards,
Jack