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FE650 gearbox a bit stubborn - ***semi-solved***

A

AxelVK

Joined Apr 2013
18 Posts | 1+
Sydney, Australia
Hi.
Not long ago I bought a 2004 FE650 and I've fixed a few things, brakes, electrics, etc. One thing I've noticed is that the gearbox seems stubborn and clunky; sometimes its hard to change gears and neutral is impossible to find with the engine running. I know some people say 'that's just how they are, live with it'.
I find that a bit hard to accept, I don't WANT to 'live with it', I WANT to be able to find neutral!
Someone wrote in an earlier post that looked at not finding neutral a 'feature'. I think that is just making excuses for a fault.

Is it fixable? Any tips?


PS. Have changed the oil and filter if that makes a diff.
 
Re: FE650 gearbox a bit stubborn

Switch to neutral when the bike is still rolling! Works for me. Otherwise shut it off then find it. :D if all else fails .....live with it. Life is full of compromises
 
Re: FE650 gearbox a bit stubborn

Yeah tried finding neutral while rolling already. No go.
I am not looking at compromising here, I'm trying to fix a fault.
 
Re: FE650 gearbox a bit stubborn

IDK man learning to hit neutral when rolling is gonna be easier than experimenting and repeatedly splitin the cases i am sure ( the shift drum is inside the cases, no synchros etc etc dont do it etc) .......i can hit N when rolling to a street stop at 10-15mph then take my hands off the wheel and roll up to it no hander if i want with practice........unless your an engineer and machinist with unlimited time and resources keep practicing hitting N when rolling....thats just me i guess, good luck dood :D :cheers: :cheers:

although you could have more issues that make the shifting to N not easy? burrs on shift drum, star, rod linkage bushing failure etc as possible cause?
 
Re: FE650 gearbox a bit stubborn

Bergini said:
IDK man learning to hit neutral when rolling is gonna be easier than experimenting and repeatedly splitin the cases i am sure ( the shift drum is inside the cases, no synchros etc etc dont do it etc) .......i can hit N when rolling to a street stop at 10-15mph then take my hands off the wheel and roll up to it no hander if i want with practice........unless your an engineer and machinist with unlimited time and resources keep practicing hitting N when rolling....thats just me i guess, good luck dood :D :cheers: :cheers:

although you could have more issues that make the shifting to N not easy? burrs on shift drum, star, rod linkage bushing failure etc as possible cause?
Click to expand...
Those are the sort of answers I'm looking for I guess. If I need to split cases, so be it. But I'm looking for tips before I start on that adventure.

Surely, others must have seen this problem before? Some Berg gurus on here such as yourself, Taffy, etc.
 
Re: FE650 gearbox a bit stubborn

i am sure you have to split the cases but other then that really no idea, my specialty would be automotive gear boxes with synchros, thrust washers, shims, gears, more synchros etc and even then i might use the book as needed lol, if it were me and i was going after it i would compare the honda or suzuki gearbox that has no problems going into N then compare to the berg then find the differences mayb efor an idea. for me the shift to N when rolling is easy usually, or course the occasionaly misshift but no big deal to me......reengineering could be an extreme but maybe its not a huge deal, not sure if anyones really tried that hard to go there due to unknown...neutral is easy to find when spinning the shafts by hand its when you have engine rpm behind them neutral cant be found...so maybe not just splitting the cases but might be splitting, assembling the whole bike than resplittting again and again and again and again......could be difficult
 
Re: FE650 gearbox a bit stubborn

I don't mind if I have to split the cases but I was hoping to know what to look for i.e. typical fault of this description.
 
UPDATE - took the bike for a spin and practiced on finding the neutral. Managed to find it 3 or 4 times so I guess it is like you said - practice needed.
Apologies for wasting bandwidth.

I must say though; it is BY FAR the clunkiest gearbox I've ever had on any bike. Sometimes it misbehaves when trying to upshift from 2nd to 3rd as well.
 
There still is a chance some of the clunky feel coming from a burr on something or some wear somewhere......I had to lower my gear selector some so that i could give it "a little more toe" during a gear change to ensure it hit the next gear which helped with any mis-shift issues for me......
 
Usually I just have to blip the throttle and it will click in as the revs are falling (when stopped). Sometimes it needs to be blipped with a little clutch slip, then It clicks in as the revs are falling.

If neither of those methods work, the lever might not be adjusted right. If the clutch drags at idle, with the lever almost at the bar that could be the problem.
 
I've tried blipping the throttle and slipping the clutch, doesn't seem to have any effect at all.
I suspect Bergini is on to something; some burred and worn bits.
 
Hey I just thought of something, I think taffy has a kit that he has created that allows neutral to be found, no idea what year bikes it was for and also no idea if it works but maybe you could check it out more at www.taffmeisters.co.uk/
 
first of all you need to rmove the selector fork and radius the edges where the forks have bo0th been butting the pins on the selector drum - that will be well worth doing. check the action is smooth.

secondly, check all the steels on a surface plate for warping.

they also upgraded your clutch drum twice more in 2006 and 2007 and I would at a guess say that has something to do with it

4th; try and shim the slack out of the basket behind the two C clips.

5th: put a pill down the bottom of the pressure plate hole where the rod goes.

there is a chance that you aren't getting full clutch travel but I don't believe that.

that should keep you quiet of an evening for a while!

oh and oil is another one. try telling us what you run please?

regards

Taffy
 
Thanks Taffy and everyone;
I'm using Motorex Cross Power 4T 10w 60.

When the time comes to check all those things inside the cover that Taffy mentions, I will probably come back asking some stupid questions. I hope that's OK.
 
something else to look at is the wear on the clutch hubs where the clutch discs slide... these can have some pretty significant wear that will prevent the clutch from fully disengaging.
 
the 2004 clutch is different fella and no longer has that problem.

I do an upgrade kit (for 2001-2003) on ebay.

regards

Taffy
 

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