Stuck in neutral
 

Hey guys
I've been putting up with this intermittent problem since I got my 2011 R from new - but it's really starting to bug me. I've done just under 5000 km.

If I'm riding in traffic and regularly stopping at lights, I'll go into neutral (after I'm comfortable that no one is gonna ram me from behind). Then - more times than not - when I'll step on the gear lever to select first again (clutch in obviously), it won't go into gear. I depress the lever but it just springs back into neutral - doesn't do it's customary clunk into gear.

This is pretty distressing when you've got a bank of cars waiting for you to take off! I've tried rolling the bike back and forward a bit to help it engage but that doesn't help. Tried going up into 2nd to get out of neutral but that doesn't help either. I literally have to stomp on the gear lever really hard to get first gear - and i fear I'm gonna break something if i keep doing that. Yet, at other times, it will slip straight into gear, no probs. :sad11:

I don't understand mechanically what could be causing this to happen. Any clues, or anyone experienced something similar? And what can i do about it?
I've had bikes before where it was difficult to find neutral - but never one where it's hard to get out of neutral.

Thanks in advance for any advice...

have you tryed letting the clutch out while holding pressure on the gear lever... had a honda years ago I had to do that sometimes..
On the Honda it was a weak detent spring not indexing the selecter drum in the correct position sometimes..then the gear lever
mechanism not being able to pick up the drive pins on the end of the selecter drum...

Thanks Pete, for your advice. I'll give that a crack - it might help me find the gear when I'm in traffic but clearly it's a fault if you have to do that. Do you reckon pulling apart the clutch and putting it back together would reset the alignment? Or is it more complicated than that, i.e. defective component / clutch rebuild?

My bike should still be under warranty, so I'd like to be armed with a bit of knowledge of what is causing the problem before i hit Yamaha up and they brush me off and tell me it's just a wear and tear issue.

Are you sitting with the clutch pulled in at the lights in neutral? If you are try letting the clutch out & only pull in the clutch when you want to put it into gear.

If that does not work it could be a selector drum selector problem, does your gear lever have any free play in it at the slpines.

No Kev, I select neutral so I can take my hand off the clutch and give it a rest, then when it's time to go I pull in the clutch and attempt to find first gear.

And the gear lever is tight on the splines. So it sounds like a 'selector drum' problem? I'm out of my depth, mechanically, with this one so thanks heaps for your advice. As mentioned, I'll take it up with Yamaha as a warranty claim but I'd like to be armed with the right terminology to describe the issue. Doesn't sound like it's a common problem...

Cheers... Dan

Sorry about the late suggestion, Spinner.

My bike does exactly as you describe if I hold the clutch in for a couple of seconds before trying to select first. I let the clutch out a fraction until the gears spin again, and then it's possible to engage first. Sometimes with a clunk. It's always done it, and I don't think it's anything serious.

On my bike, at times the clutch fully disengages like a dry clutch, and the gears stop spinning. I had a couple of BMWs do this, and the "fix" was the same. Just let the clutch out a bit, then pull it in and press the gearlever. It should go in, stomp-free.

Hope this is of some help.

Have you tried adjusting the clutch cable???? A few weeks ago the clutch on my XT660X suddenly started to not disengage correctly, the "feeling" only started at half of the clutch lever movement. I struggled with this for a while and adjusting the cable at the handlebar lever made no difference, so then I tried to adjust the clutch at the engine and everything came back as it should have been. Worth a try maybe?? Ciao....

Thanks 66T and Simon for the advice. Good stuff!

At the risk of exposing myself as a total bonehead, and for the benefit of others who might have experienced the same, I will fess up to how I resolved this. I�ll sound like an outright newbie here but the truth is I�ve had a few bikes in the past (all second-hand until the XT) and I�ve never noticed this problem of getting stuck in neutral.

First up, a recent post on this forum about changing the clutch alerted me to the fact that a correctly adjusted clutch has the notch on the clutch arm lined up with the indentation on the housing when the clutch is disengaged. Mine wasn�t � although lever free play was fine. So I adjusted the cable, at both the engine side and the lever side to maintain the right free play and line up the notches.

Secondly, internet searching has showed me that this is a common problem on a range of bikes and an inherent facet of bike gearboxes (especially on �new� bikes where it�s all still tight)� it just needs to be managed. A lot of blokes say they never go to neutral on the street � thus avoiding the issue.

So, as per the previous explanation, if stopped at the lights for an extended period, I�d go to neutral, take my hand off the clutch to rest. Then when green try to engage 1st gear but no go. The remedy is as 66T explained: simply let the clutch out to spin the transmission and then try again, and it will always go into gear.

It was happening so often to me that I thought there must be a fault � and my inexperience in traffic had me panicking when it didn�t slip into gear so I�d jump on it to change rather than just calmly re-clutching it� It still goes in with a clunk � but that sounds like it�s pretty standard for these bikes too.

Put 600 km on the bike over the past couple of weeks and the issue has been resolved. I was deliberately trying to make it happen by stopping and going to neutral, but it hardly ever got stuck (not sure if the cable adjustment helped that), and when it did happen, I just re-clutched it and it was fine� so, long post to explain that I am basically a dumb-ass. But hey, if it helps someone else�