Side cover expands , and hard to shift when bike is hot?

[truetilldeath]

Just like the title says, when cool bike shifts and rides fine. About 20 minutes into a ride, starts to get hard to shift, but here's the weird part. It looks as if the side cover is expanding or shifter is getting sucked in.

I do not have a picture currently.

But if I would have to guess. Space between shifter and side cover is about half an inch, after it warms up shifter hits side cover... Anyone else see this or have this problem?


Bike is an 83 xs650 heritage special. Mostly stock parts aside from hard tail and some other misc parts. Nothing has been done with clutch or other mods to drive train.

 

[DogBunny]

Check for cracks in the side cover. Check for cracks or damage to the worm gear, particularly the nylon piece.

 

[truetilldeath]

Thanks dog, anything else I should check out ? never noticed any cracks in the cover and will check out worm gear tomorrow, if all looks good what else could be the culprit?

 

[DogBunny]

While you have the cover off, pull the push rod out. If it's the long one, then someone has replaced it. Go back to the 2-piece rod. The 2-piece rod matches the normal expansion of the engine better than the 1-piece.
That's about it. If you don't find any cracks or damage to the side cover or the worm gear, then you are going to have to learn to adjust the cable length with the big adjuster on the clutch perch as the engine warms up. That's what it's there for.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

... here's the weird part. It looks as if the side cover is expanding or shifter is getting sucked in. ... Anyone else see this or have this problem? ....

Boy, that IS an odd one. Had a member here with similar scenario, chasing different problem several months back. Found that his shift-shaft retaining circlip and backup washer was missing, forgotten during rebuild...

Somewhere around this post:
http://www.xs650.com/forum/showpost.php?p=265286&postcount=61

 

[DogBunny]

Yeah, I sort of mis-read "shifter" as "push rod" in your original post. I would still look for the things that I wrote, but TwoMany is right, it could also be a missing circlip on the shift shaft.

 

[gggGary]

The "must be there" shift shaft E clip is clearly visible in this pic.

View attachment 33111


The pic is part of this thread http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26414
Which details how to R&R the clutch adjuster, if you haven't done that yet, now's the time.