V65TT Poor gear change

I have a V65TT which I have not had for long and do not know much about the history. Gearchange was poor when I first had it and having changed the oil its no better. Struggles to go into first, very poor from first to second, often dropping into neutral. Seems actually worse if your gentle with it! any comments? should I be thinking of a rebuild? Replacement?

High Steve, welcome to the forum. There are a few things that could have a detrimental effect on the gear change, firstly and easiest to consider is the linkage from the pedal to the gearbox. this is traditionally via an adjustable rod with ball joint at each end but I believe later ones do not have the ball joints. For it to work at its best the angles between the component parts should be near to 90 degrees. Check if the clutch is set up properly and not slipping or dragging, it is adjustable at the handlebars and the rear of the gearbox. Finally if all else is good it could be wear on the selectors within the gearbox. If you are not happy to strip it and rebuild there are folk who can do so for you. Finally the gearbox oil is separate from the engine oil and may need changing too, check for metal in the oil drained with a magnet to see if there is wear within before stripping the gearbox.

Best of luck Chris

Thanks Chris - For clarity - Yes I changed the gearbox oil -
Qty as recommended in Guzziology and included some molyslip. Replaced the clutch cable recently and hopefully have it adjusted correctly. Will check the external linkages, Thats a good suggestion.

I had a sloppy change on my breva
the little alloy bit that goes on the spline at the back , had come loose, and the bolt had come undone then rotated and got chewed up by the spline
a long bolt with a lock nut and some threadlock cured it

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Guzzi big clutch gearboxes (even on the small block engine) do take some learning.
They also require the lever adjusting so that you always get full travel when you try to change.

If the lever is too low and you are not always pressing it to the bottom of travel then it will bang or drop into neutral - the same going up.

That is also another reason to aim for 90 degrees at the top and bottom connections in the rest position.

Steve, what are you used to? It might just not be matching your expectations say if you’re used to a slick Japanese box.

My current other bike is a 1971 BSA A65. :slight_smile: I’ve had a mix of bikes so I don’t think its unrealistic expectations - Have a friend who’s had a couple of V50’s - He’s going to try it out and give an opinion.

I had a problem like this on my v65c,
A couple of squirts of proper penetrating oil on the gear lever bush sorted it out completely…

Dick - Good suggestion - lets not ignore the obvious !! I will check.

Sorry I didn’t realise that this post was so old,
for some reason it got sent to me yesterday,
hopefully you’ll get it sorted, it worked for me.