Hi All After some advice if possible please. I was out for a ride and whilst accelerating hard I went for a gear and all I got was neutral. Now I'm unable to select a gear. The shifter will move up and down the box and I can get the neutral light to come on but no gears/drive. Any ideas what the problem is? Sorry, the bike's an 01 996. Cheers
Sounds like a clutch problem. Something is preventing it from engaging? Is there free play at the lever?
There are 3 springs, one which is simply a detent to hold the selector drum at each gear position, one that keeps the selector control fork in contact with the pins of the selector drum, the other which returns the gear pedal to its central position. You might not notice a problem if one of the first 2 break although they will affect the positivity of the gear selection. If the return spring breaks the pedal won't return to its central position after a downward shift. It is possible to change up but not down unless you pull the pedal back up to centre first with your toe. None of them will cause loss of drive unless there is no selection and the box is stuck in a false neutral position but given neutral can be selected that wouldn't appear to be the case.
As Derek says, there doesn’t need to be much free play at all he lever but there has to be some. If there is none, it’s as though you are pulling on the lever the whole time, so not only are you likely to get slip, the slave cylinder, pushrod and clutch release bearing are under constant load and in permanent contact, which is bad news as they are not designed for it. The pushrod may well be spinning against the slave piston, generating heat and boiling the fluid.
