Gear change issues

[Dotbond]

Here goes. The bike is a 2010 990R with 8000km.
Over the past few rides I have been finding false neutrals quite often when shifting up or the bike would jump out of gear occasionally. I thought I was getting lazy with my gear shifting. A couple of weeks ago on a ride, I found that down shifting into 4th or 3rd would be very hard to do, a lot of resistance encountered. This would occur randomly, no real rhyme or reason. It would go down but not a slick change by any means, had to put pressure on the gear lever to move it all the way down into the next gear. At one point I pulled away from an intersection, changing up into 2nd and I think it was when going into 3rd, the gear lever moved all the way up but no 3rd gear. Tried it a few times and took my foot off the footpeg to make sure the gear lever was returning back to it's place then tried changing up again. Still nothing, just empty space. I pulled over and stopped and checked to make sure nothing was jammed and that the gear lever was bolted up tight on the spline. All good there. After about 10 minutes rest I carried on and it changed up fine. Didn't do it again, but the random stiff down change occurred a few times.

I put the bike into the bike shop for a service and told them about the problem. Their mechanic went for a couple of rides but could not fault the gear change. They said they did not check the oil jet. I took the bike away and rode it some more.

Last weekend I rode the same ride and this time the random stiff down changes occurred about 20 times. A couple of times it did it going down into 5th, 4th, 3rd and then 2nd before i came to a stop.
At one point in the ride the bike could not go from 5th up into 6th.

The only way to have any chance of replicating the stiff downshifting is when riding along at highway speeds then slowing down and changing down within the 3000 - 4000rpm range. So being gentle with it you could say. You can immediately go back up a gear and down again it it will shift down nicely.

Now it's back in the shop and they are going to pull the clutch cover off to have a look.

So, any thoughts to what the problem could be?

[Balsta]

Originally Posted by Dotbond

So, any thoughts to what the (shifting) problem could be?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Balsta It just got hard to engage 6th gear on my SE after some tough dirt-riding on high rpm with full throttle. The annoying "neutral" between 5 and 6 also occurs far more often. Well, that "neutral" has always been there since new but now things are worse. What maintenance is required? Necessary to pull engine in small pieces?!

Check the Shift Arresting Cpl part# 60034015044



__________________

I could not tell any problems by just looking at that cylindrical aluminum thing with steel pins, but no more shifting problems when I replaced it by a new!!!

[RedRupert]

If it's not what Balsta suggested, it could be this:

I suffered similar symptoms. From time to time, I would experience very stiff gear changes. It would effect all gears. If I stopped and turned the motor off, upon restarting the gear change would normally be back to normal.

Quite a few miles later (around 17,000 miles), it jumped out of 6th gear, and from then on I could not select 6th or change down from 6th without great difficulty, and a fair amount of crunching. I found a chip of metal from the selector drum on the magnetic drain plug.

I think one of the rollers (no. 4 below) had become damaged, thus causing the stiff gear change. When the roller rotated, the gear change would return to being good again. Eventually the roller caused the wall of the selector drum to fracture - this is when I lost 6th gear. I replaced the damaged selector drum (with a stronger upgraded part - that your bike should have) and the damaged roller. Now all is well.





This is how I found one of the rollers:

[Dotbond]

Well I had a phone call from the bike shop and they said they found the problem. "A failed bearing on one end of the shift drum". Will know a bit more tomorrow.

[Dotbond]

Been a while. KTM are covering the job under warranty. New gears and bearings as required for the gearbox. Any gears that were chipped/worn/bruised are being replaced. Including new rings for the pistons. Parts have finally arrived - nearly 4 weeks. So I should have the bike back next week sometime.

[Bluft]

My bike has exactly the same fault and am waiting for the parts to arrive also. Failed shift drum and roller. Ordered parts 1 week ago. No warrenty as it is a 2007 model. Hopefully it will be sorted asap as the DB1K is getting close now!

[Dotbond]

Originally Posted by Bluft

My bike has exactly the same fault and am waiting for the parts to arrive also. Failed shift drum and roller. Ordered parts 1 week ago. No warrenty as it is a 2007 model. Hopefully it will be sorted asap as the DB1K is getting close now!

Ouch! Any idea on cost to repair?

[Dotbond]

Finally got the bike back on Friday after work and rode it 200km that evening to Timaru, then back to Dunedin on the Saturday. No issues at all, gear changes appear to be sweet.

[Bluft]

Great to hear. Im still waiting on my parts to arrive. Had a close look at the old rollers that slide in the shiftdrum groves in the weekend. One of them was so tight i couldnt even get it to fit. I could only just visually see the slight dents and damage on the roller.

[Bluft]

How is the bike going Dotbond? Still awaiting my parts to arrive.

[Dotbond]

Hopefully get to ride the bike again this weekend, didn't get a chance last weekend. Silly season started already.

[bEnt_bars]

My 06 950 started having this similar issue a few months ago and I need to decide on whether to tackle this myself or to bring the bike into the shop for repair

The problem I'm having is only with upshifts to 3rd, 4th or 5th gear, when this happens the shifter just hits a dead stop and will not engage but with tapping down a gear and then back up it is then fine. It only happens on rare random occassions but when it does it's annoying and I want to fix the problem

I've been doing a bit of recon and reading thru the shop manual to see what is involved but just how difficult is it to get to the shift drum and rollers?

I'm fairly mechanically capable on things that I can see beforehand but with this being more internal I don't want to get in over my head and create a bigger headache

If it's easy enough I'm willing to do this myself, just would like to hear from others that have tackled it before and any tips would be appreciated

Thx

[ciedema]

Replacing the shift rollers means splitting the cases. That said it is not as difficult as it sounds, it is time consuming. You can remove the heads and barrels without removing the pistons from the barrel.

All that said if you are going to go that far into it you may aswell check everything.

[Fatallybitten]

My bike is a 2010 990 Adventure with 18,000 kms. I am not suffering false neutrals, but I have been having trouble upshifting, mainly from 2nd gear onwards. The transmission will stay in the gear I am in and it can take several determined attempts to shift before the transmission will finally comply. Like others, it is a bit of a random thing, although it was happening fairly regularly on the last two days of my season ending 3,000 km trip. Weather prevented me from getting the bike to the shop before the snow flew, so it is going to have to wait until spring here in Canada. Any thoughts would be appreciated. David

[ciedema]

Originally Posted by Fatallybitten

Any thoughts would be appreciated. David

This definatly sounds likes enlongated shift rollers. Like the others this means splitting the cases and replacing.