Having trouble shifting....last stop before build is finished

MFJustin

MFJustin

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Hey guys, back again with another question.

After piecing my new project together over the past few months I'm finally on the home stretch. Got the bike running the other night after buying it as a non runner and its only a few things away from being completely road worthy. Just need to tune my carbs properly and address this issue that I'm having with my transmission.

I followed the detailed write up on here for adjusting your clutch. Before I couldn't shift through any gears at all and after a bit of playing with the adjustment on the left side cover worm gear and the adjuster on the handlebar I've got a decent albeit stiff clutch pull and I am somewhat able to cycle through the gears. Here is the issue....

I cannot get the bike to shift through all of the gears like it normally would at a standstill. With the clutch pulled in, I can downshift it into first, instead of being able to immediately click it up into second gear and beyond I have to rotate the front sprocket a bit before it will click into the next gear. I confirmed this at first by hand rotating the sprocket through all the gears and then once I put the chain on the same thing happens. I've only done short little rides up and down my street to tune various things and it does ok while the bike is in motion. If I'm stopped with the bike on sometimes I can't click it down into first gear unless I walk the bike forward a bit while sitting on it and then it pops in. Like I said it seems to shift seamlessly through the gears as long as the bike (and therefore the sprocket) are in motion, but the moment the bike is stopped I cant just pull the clutch in and click through all the gears and back down, I have to walk the bike forward a bit until what seems like the sprocket rotates enough to click it into the next gear.


Just wanted to see if anybody had any tips, I bought this bike as a non runner because the owner abandoned a project halfway through due to a baby but he said it ran great before he took it apart and based on what I've encountered taking it apart so far I do believe him on that. I dont know if this is still a clutch misadjustment issue or something else. The ball bearing is still inside of the worm gear from what I can see, and its an 81 so it has the long clutch pushrod. Thanks in advance guys. Cant wait to get this hang up fixed so I can get it on the road.
 
What you're describing seems normal for a sitting bike. There's no reason that you would run through the gears while sitting at a stop light, engine running.
I've learned to live with the eccentricity of the shifting. I get the bike into neutral when coming to a red light while still moving forward....going from 1st to neutral at a stop can sometimes be a challenge, going from neutral to 1st once stopped is no problem..... Have yet to get the '77 street legal so I really can't compare to it yet.

Others may vary.
 
Interesting.

I only say that because I had a 79 before this one and I could cycle through the gears up and down the whole way while sitting idle at a stop light. I was only curious because I was basing it off of that and assumed that to be normal operation but being new to this bikes still I couldn't tell for sure.
 
I'll agree with nj639 that this is somewhat normal. However, you mentioned a stiff pull. Try to route the cable as smoothly as possible, and with as few bends as possible. Do whatever it takes no matter how strange the route may seem. I have seen this simple thing fix the problems you describe.
 
I'm about the last guy on here that should be offering mechanical advice but having recently put a bought in boxes project on the road ....

I agree most bikes / manual transmissions in general won't smoothly go through the all of the gears with the engine off and nothing being turned so yours may be fine as is.

When I got mine running it popped out of second a couple of times and didn't downshift well, I did some research and learned a fairly common xs650 issue involves a broken spring that is on the right side near "above" the clutch basket.

With my usual degree of not paying attention I ordered what looked like the obvious replacement from Mikes and discovered after removing the cover that there are two springs and I had the wrong one.

I bent a new end on the broken spring and after about 20 tries got it back on and it solved the problem.

My bike will find neutral ok while stopped at a light, I have noticed though that small adjustments on the clutch pull improve the downshifting, don't know if it's the nature of the beast or related to my reusing the now shorter spring? good luck with yours
 
Seems like the general agreement so far is that this isnt that far out of the ordinary, I'm glad I asked though, I was still basing this off of my '79 that I could cycle through all the gears while sitting at a red light if I wanted to. I'm going to play with the clutch adjustment some more and see if I can get it to shift a little smoother, my biggest concern is more the shifting from first to to neutral and vice versa while at stop lights, if I can get that ironed out smoothly the rest should be decent enough to live with.
 
As others have said, shifting through all the gears while setting still with the engine running doesn't happen very well.
Why would you want to anyway. Doing that at a redlight and when it changes you will be in the wrong gear anyway.
You might try fine tuning your clutch adjustment a bit more.
Leo
 
XSLeo said:
As others have said, shifting through all the gears while setting still with the engine running doesn't happen very well.
Why would you want to anyway. Doing that at a redlight and when it changes you will be in the wrong gear anyway.
You might try fine tuning your clutch adjustment a bit more.
Leo
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily want to, I'm still new to these bikes and their workings so the '79 I had before this shifted flawlessly between gears. I was using sitting at a red light as an example but my point with that was on my '79 at a standstill I was able to shift through all of the gears with the clutch in and back down again. On the '81 I cannot do that. It's not the fact that I WANT to do that but rather I'm just checking to make sure that this is not something that's still misadjusted and therefore not functioning normally. After these replies I know that I'm right where I thought I was and everything is good to go minus trying to reduce my clutch cable drag.

retiredgentleman said:
Why do you want to shift into neutral at a stop light?
Click to expand...

I've driven manuals since I could first drive, I know it's much safer to leave a vehicle in gear to move quickly in case of an emergency situation. That idea goes tenfold for motorcycle owners, however that being said, there are some longggggggggg red lights in my town where sometimes you just have to pop it into neutral and relax.
 
MFJustin if it is of any consequence my 79F shifts easier and vibrates less than the (2) stock 83sk's, the pieced together 83, and the 81. I've pm'ed several who own both the older standards and the later specials asking if they have noticed the difference. Nay say they. But you and I know the better, eh.
 
weekendrider said:
MFJustin if it is of any consequence my 79F shifts easier and vibrates less than the (2) stock 83sk's, the pieced together 83, and the 81. I've pm'ed several who own both the older standards and the later specials asking if they have noticed the difference. Nay say they. But you and I know the better, eh.
Click to expand...

WER, I agree, there seems to be a considerable difference in the engines between different years. My friend has an 1980 XS650, and the vibration ripped his licence plate so bad, he had to buy a new plate. I've heard quite a few others complain about the same tearing of the licence plate. However, I've had the same licence plate on my 78SE for 6 years now, and it does not vibrate.. I really believe that Yamaha was doing much better crankshaft balancing in the 78 and 79 years, and lowered the balancing standards from 1980 on.

My 78SE shifts almost without effort. This is my third Yamaha, and they all shifted perfectly.
 
Just took it for a spin around the block and got it up into fourth gear, shifts just fine on the move so ill follow what everyone said and just look past it.

For the sake of not starting another thread, anybody know where to get a decent set of carb boots for BS38 carbs? The BS34s this 81 came with cause the bike to only run on one cylinder so they need some fixing and I'm just going to run my BS38s however one of the carb mounts has a chunk of rubber missing and I don't want it to cause an air leak. I've read the reports on Mikes XS boots tearing so I'd prefer to avoid those if someone else has a great recommendation.
 
MFJustin said:
Just took it for a spin around the block and got it up into fourth gear, shifts just fine on the move so ill follow what everyone said and just look past it.

For the sake of not starting another thread, anybody know where to get a decent set of carb boots for BS38 carbs? The BS34s this 81 came with cause the bike to only run on one cylinder so they need some fixing and I'm just going to run my BS38s however one of the carb mounts has a chunk of rubber missing and I don't want it to cause an air leak. I've read the reports on Mikes XS boots tearing so I'd prefer to avoid those if someone else has a great recommendation.
Click to expand...

http://www.jbmindustries.com/index.html

I tried the manifolds from Mikesxs a few years back. They are a sloppy fit and cause air in leakage. I went back to using my OEM stock manifolds.................34 years old...........real high quality................fit perfectly and no air leakage.
 
Ahhh I stumbled on the JBM site earlier and unfortunately they are sold out of the ones for 38's right now, I'll just have to wait until they come back in stock.
 
Thanks for the link, the Sudco catalog you linked to shows the carb boots but says XS650's from 75-77 only. I've got BS38s from a '79 being run on this bike, I'm assuming I can disregard the year range Sudco had listed because shouldn't BS38's fit those you linked to regardless?
 
The difference in the 1979 holders is the vacuum barbs. 5twins tells how to install your own barbs in the thread from the other forum that I linked to. I think MMM at 650central.com sells barbs if you don't have an old set of holders to rob from. Or, if you don't have vacuum petcocks you can do without the barbs.
So, yes, the Sudco's will work. BTW, JBM no longer sells holders with barbs either.
 
DogBunny said:
Well, you didn't read the whole thread like I strongly recommended. The difference in the 1979 holders is the vacuum barbs. 5twins tells how to install your own barbs. I think MMM at 650central.com sells barbs if you don't have an old set of holders to rob from. Or, if you don't have vacuum petcocks you can do without the barbs.
Click to expand...

I actually did read the whole thread, however being relatively new to this still I don't always pick up on the little differences between this and that, hence the reason I ask questions.......to learn.

I do not have vacuum petcocks so therefore I am ok to do without, however (and here I go asking a question again) aren't those barbs also used to sync the carbs properly after a bench sync is done?
 
Yes, having barbs makes syncing easier, but if you don't have them you can sync the old-fashioned way before they started making holders with barbs. There are relatively large slotted flat head screws on the outboard side of each carb. They are for syncing. You remove the screws and temporarily insert screw-in barbs. MMM at 650central.com sells the screw-in barbs. Or, install barbs in your holders like 5twins describes in the other thread.
 

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