Missing gears? Rough shifting? Falling out of gear into that mysterious "Phantom neutral"?

Before you haul her in for some major tranny work, give her some TLC and clean and lubricate the shifter pedal and linkage joints first. You just might be surprised at how little lubricant is there now, or how rusted or grungy the pivot post is.

Most any forward control shifting mechanism is subject to mother nature's ravages, rain, road grime, dirt...whatever, if the shift pivot or linkage gets cranky, she just can't quite get it together, but most of the time, she can easily be fixed.

Take off the large left engine cover (the one with the air vent in it). Be careful with it, because you have to unplug the rectifier harness before it will come free of the bike. (You are removing that cover to give yourself clearance to remove the sifter pedal from the foot board plate.)

Then, remove the single pivot bolt that holds your shift pedal to its stanchion on the foot board plate. Slide the pedal off it's pivot bearing and ease it over out of the way (you don't have to remove it from the linkage). Clean the bearing surface and the inside of the pedal, then grease both areas with some marine grade grease (the stuff you grease boat trailer bearings with).

TIP: If your linkages have not been serviced before, you may find that the bushing and pedal pivot hole are rusted, and may even have to drive out the bushing with a socket and hammer. Once this is done, clean up the inside areas with a wire brush type battery terminal cleaner. (Thanks to Tom Housley for that tip)

On each end of the linkage rod, there is a ball joint. You should skin back the rubber dust seal and pack this ball joint with the same marine grease. There is a small hole in the outboard surface of the joint that you can press grease into with your finger (just like hand packing a wheel bearing) until it pushes the old stuff out the inboard side, then clean off the old stuff (assuming that there was any!) and push the dust cover back over the joint.

Now re-install the pedal and large engine cover (don't forget to re-plug the wiring harness in) and ride down to the store and buy some chrome!!.

UPDATE!! You wanna get rid of that lump of rust and corrosion formerly known as a steel bushing and replace it with a permanently smooth bronze bushing?
Check out the new GBushing from GManIndustries!! Spend a few bucks while you've got the shifter off and never have to deal with it again!!

The new Bronze GBushing from www.gmanindustries.com

SNAKE MAIL