'84 Royale 1200 tranny issue...??

[northernrider]

Finally got my '84 up and running after getting the title from a friend of mine last fall. Changed out the left side lower cover gasket, put some fresh oil and gas in it. Fire right up and sounded fine, warmed up no problem and put the bike in gear to move it around under power for a minute or so...now I'm having a problem finding neutral... Put the bike up on the centre stand and it will run fine in first and second but can't seem to get neutral to come back...???

[Neil86]

Can you get back into neutral with the engine off?

[paysaw]

I would check your clutch fluid too.

[wrnchjox]

My 87 does that from time to time,I just shut the bike off and rock it a little and it slips into neutral no problem.

[JohnT]

I would check your clutch fluid too.

If I let the fluid get to low (slight slave leak) neutral gets hard to find.

[northernrider]

Can you get back into neutral with the engine off?

 

So far no I wasn't able to get the bike back in neutral with the bike off (and at the same time I had to leave the bike to tend to other family dynamics). Monday I'm going to my local Ministry of Transportation to get the bike ownership transferred over and get the plates, insurance and such organized. Then the rest of Monday and Tuesday I'm gonna dive into the issue a bit more...

[northernrider]

If I let the fluid get to low (slight slave leak) neutral gets hard to find.

 

Thanks guys for that thought, the clutch would definitely make sense considering when I do pull back the lever to the bar the bike will sit without any grab. But as soon as I start to let the lever back out you can feel the clutch instantly engage. There should be a bit of free play. I'm also trying to remember that the bike has sat for awhile and everything has likely stiffened up. I've checked the breaks over, lighting, tires are still good, hopefully this is minor. I'll post my results later in the week when I get the chance to get back over to the storage and look the bike over again.

[Marcarl]

On my 85, it's much easier to find neutral from 2nd than it is from 1st,,,, often times it's impossible to go from 1st to neutral, but from 2nd it works better.

[MiCarl]

You have to bypass neutral to get from first to second and vice versa. So barring something like severely bent shift forks you probably have a clutch problem

 

The gear dogs and slots (the parts that hook them together) have back cuts on them so that engine torque helps keep them engaged. If the clutch is dragging it takes so much force to get out of one gear you shoot right past neutral and land in the other.

 

That same back cut can cause trouble shifting to neutral without the engine or wheel turning at all. Rocking the motorcycle forward/backward as you shift should let the gears decouple.

[MiCarl]

Just re-read your post. See you had the left cover off. If you got the shaft on the shift pedal rotated 180 out of position it reverses the shifting motion. In other words you could be looking for neutral between 2nd and 3rd, where it doesn't exist.

[northernrider]

Just re-read your post. See you had the left cover off. If you got the shaft on the shift pedal rotated 180 out of position it reverses the shifting motion. In other words you could be looking for neutral between 2nd and 3rd, where it doesn't exist.

 

thanks for the input, I'll have a look at the linkage and see if that's a possible cause as well

[northernrider]

So after pulling the bike out of my friends storage and transporting it to my storage unit closer to home, I got the bike out for a ride! The tranny issue i think was a lack of not being around motorcycles for the last couple years...once I had it out and running for a few minutes I found nuetral without a problem.

 

Rode the bike for a bit and could hear the speedo whining so I headed back to my storage and pulled out the tool box, lubed the cable and that problem went away. Rode the bike back to my apartment and it just quit when I got home...got up the next morning and started reading some of the posts around this site. Found that a red wire around the battery has a fuseable link in it? Well it turned out to be the culprit of that problem and will be repairing the connection soon. I jumped back on the bike this morning and rode back to the storage unit to put the bike away for the week...then I lost all power to my gauge cluster?? hmmm...now what??

[Neil86]

okay....if bike still ran with no gauge power....check the signal fuse in the fuse box atop the battery.

 

The fuse might be fine but the fuse clips are no longer grasping fuse end.

[northernrider]

okay....if bike still ran with no gauge power....check the signal fuse in the fuse box atop the battery.

 

The fuse might be fine but the fuse clips are no longer grasping fuse end.

 

I wonder if it would be easier to covert the fuse box to blade type fuses instead of tubes??

[bongobobny]

Member Skydoc_17 sells just what you need, a conversion kit. Either PM Earl or check the classifieds...

 

PS there is another Member in Barrie, Tooch but he rides a 2nd gen!

[Neil86]

Some have switched to the blade fuses....I think Skydoc_17 sells a kit in the classifieds on this site.

 

edit....yeah Bongobob types faster...lol

[bongobobny]

Hehehehehehehehe! Sorry to steal your thunder Neil...

[northernrider]

LOL!!! Thanks guys, I'll check out the classifieds later :thumbsup2: