I got quite a fright yesterday when my bike got stuck in fifth gear in the middle of a busy junction, stationary. I eventually managed to get it into third and slipped the clutch to escape my ‘sitting duck’ position. Once moving it selected gear again but got stuck once more a little further down the road.
Stopping somewhere safe, I hopped off to see if I could find the problem.
It was apparent that the lever wasn’t returning to it’s central position once the pressure of my boot was released, hence the next gear couldn’t be selected. I’ve subsequently read on this forum it’s happened to quite a few of you.
The cause is the levers pivot bush being ‘gummed’ up. Whether this is because it was assembled dry at the factory or subsequent use through winter and the odd jet washing I don’t know, but it caught me out. My bike is less than 2 years old with 11,500 miles on, so shouldn’t be seizing up yet!
Lashings of WD40 (Hobson’s choice rather than preference) got the lever moving eventually once it worked into the joint, and got me home.
I’ve stripped and cleaned it today and it’s as good as new again. A fairly simple task that might save you a lot of agro in future if you’d care to have a go, alternatively you may like to get your mechanic do it next time your bike’s ‘in’.
You’ll need a 6mm Allen key, 13mm spanner , some emery cloth or similar and some grease.
Simply remove the nut and bolt, the lever is then hanging on it’s tie rod. You can work on it there, under the bike if the sleeve slides out of the bush easily, apply some grease and reassemble.
As mine was tight I took the lever off the bike completely by unclipping the ball joint (retained by a little clip) to make life easier.
I pulled the ‘top hat’ sleeve out of the bush, there is an ‘O’ ring each end of the bush to keep the grease in (and the shpit out), and cleaned all the crud off the inside of the bush and the outside of the ‘top hat’ sleeve.
I reassembled using some silicon grease (my preference as it doesn’t affect the o ring rubber).
The ‘penny washer’ clamps against the end of the ‘top hat’ sleeve on reassembly allowing the lever to be free to move with the clamping bolt tight.
Hope all that makes sense, and maybe of some use to someone.
component parts and rough sketch.
Cleaned bush.
O ring in place and greased. opposite o ring and top hat sleeve inserted and greased. bolt in loose (picture from beneath)
Clamped in tight ( picture from beneath)
nice one, thanks Cali 1963.