transmission question

Message

mikebllers · Mon Jun 26, 2006 11:52 am

by the shift lever on my 1982 yamaha xs400j maxim the gear configuration is stamp on the bike it show's as follows 1-n-2-3-4-5 but when i ride it and while shifting it is actually 1-n-2-3-4 now my question is could it be possible someone changed the transmission in it before i bought the bike? or is it more likely the 5 gear is out in it? is there any way of finding out if it is the origanal transmisson if so how? if 5 gear is out in it does that mean a new transmission or can it be fixed if so is it something that is to expensive to do for such an old bike or should i just ride it like it is and call it good. this is my first motorcycle i just bought it about 2 month's ago i thought it was a good buy it is in mint condition and it only had 16,800 miles on it which is very low miles on a bike in michigan so i have been told. the party i bought the bike from wanted 1,300 dollars for it but with a little talkin i got it for 950.00 so was this a good buy for the bike? please any comment's would be greatly appreciated.

MotoF150 · #2 Unread post by **MotoF150** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:37 pm

I will try to answer this, I know many other guys in this forum know more, but the engine and transmission is in one case unit, they are not seperate, and you can't take one of the transmission gears off the primary shaft, all the gears hold the other gears together, im betting its a simple problem like the internal shift fork thats worn.

dieziege · #3 Unread post by **dieziege** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:03 pm

A worn, bent, or broken shift fork (internal part of the transmission) seems likely.

Just FWIW... I have a Yam XS1100, a few years earlier than your bike but propably similar. One of the shift forks broke, blocking access to 2nd... when I disassembled it, there were chunks of metal from the busted fork in the oil pan. I had to buy a scrap engine to plunder for the parts to fix it. The replacement was took a bit of wrist-breaking and rather tedious fiddle work to slide out some shafts in the tranny and replace the fork. It was fixable without pulling the engine, but pulling the engine may have been easier. You may have a similar problem. I'd be tempted to pull the bottom cover/oil pan and take a look... if it's similar to my bike's transmission you can just look up into the transmission and shift up and down to see how things work. You'll need a bit of RTV for reassembly of course.