Shifter may be stripped?

[yamahaxs]

My shifter on my xs400 was bent a little bit and now it isnt tight around the boot, i tried to tighten the bolt but its a little bit rusty. I'm afraid that i may have stripped both the shifter and the boot. i looked into it and its about 30 dollars for the new parts, but i was wondering if anyone knew how to take the boot out if it does need to be changed?!!?
any help would be much appreciated
thanks
brandon

[BuzZz]

Boot? Can't think what this means here.

There will be a shift input shaft that the shift lever clamps around. Stripping out the clamp bolt is not uncommon, and ussually the shift lever is a softer metal than the input shaft, so the shaft tends to survive. But not always.

To slide the shift lever off the shaft, you probably need to completely remove the clamp bolt. Pull it right out of the shift lever before you start yankin' on it.

[yamahaxs]

thanks, thats just what i thought but i didnt want to do anything stupid. the guy who owned my bike before me i think put the bolt on wrong, he screwed it in from the bottom. From what i can see in the diagrams online, its supposed to go in from the top. hopefully i didnt, but is it hard to replace the shift input shaft if need be?

[BuzZz]

It's not something you want to do if you don't have to. Depending on the engine, it will require varying amounts of open-engine surgery. It will probably have to come out of the frame, and might even need to have the cases split. I don't know about your bike specifically. But chances are, your shaft is salvageable and all you need is a new shifter.