Bad day in Roadstarville..

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Bill Seward

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Riding the Roadie this afternoon, and the 5th gear turned into a neutral. The tranny made a little noise, and the gear was gone. The bike shifts into 5th, but won't drive. All other gears work fine. I'm thinking I'll be saving up over the winter for a transmission job. Good thing Godzilla is still out. I was gonna park it today. Roadies going in the basement tomorrow, I definitely don't want to ride it with something floating around in the gearbox.
 
I'm sure our trans guy can do magic on it but it does sound like some broken gear engagement dogs. You could drain the oil, maybe pull the clutch assembly out of the way, and see if you can fish them out of there. Here's an example as seen on the Vmax 5th gear going away.
 

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I had an incident about a month ago that I thought was a stone in the belt. It made a nasty noise, and it felt like something was slowing the bike down. I was in 5th gear at the time. I'll bet that was at least one of the dogs coming loose and "almost' jamming up things. We got lucky, as a week later we took a 350 mile trip, and I put another 600 on since. I did ride the bike home yesterday - I'm lucky one of those parts didn't get tangled up in the gears and put me on my ass..

I'll deal with it in the spring. I talked to the dealer, he quoted me "about" $1500.. I've got a friend nearby who owns Motion Craft in East Aurora. He said he could do the job, and I completely trust the job will be done right. He will save me a LOT over the dealers price, too.

A Roadie motor has to have the heads and barrels off to split the cases to get at the gears. No way I'm gonna do that myself. After 80,000 miles I think I'll have him do a valve job, as long as it's apart..
 
I had an incident about a month ago that I thought was a stone in the belt. It made a nasty noise, and it felt like something was slowing the bike down. I was in 5th gear at the time. I'll bet that was at least one of the dogs coming loose and "almost' jamming up things. We got lucky, as a week later we took a 350 mile trip, and I put another 600 on since. I did ride the bike home yesterday - I'm lucky one of those parts didn't get tangled up in the gears and put me on my ass..

I'll deal with it in the spring. I talked to the dealer, he quoted me "about" $1500.. I've got a friend nearby who owns Motion Craft in East Aurora. He said he could do the job, and I completely trust the job will be done right. He will save me a LOT over the dealers price, too.

A Roadie motor has to have the heads and barrels off to split the cases to get at the gears. No way I'm gonna do that myself. After 80,000 miles I think I'll have him do a valve job, as long as it's apart..
I think I remember you saying something about your belt in a post. You had thought a rock got trapped/ lodged in the drive gear or something? Sorry to hear about 5th hopefully it doesn't set you back too much and hopefully there isn't any other damage.

Sent from my SM-G360V using Tapatalk
 
I had an incident about a month ago that I thought was a stone in the belt. It made a nasty noise, and it felt like something was slowing the bike down. I was in 5th gear at the time. I'll bet that was at least one of the dogs coming loose and "almost' jamming up things. We got lucky, as a week later we took a 350 mile trip, and I put another 600 on since. I did ride the bike home yesterday - I'm lucky one of those parts didn't get tangled up in the gears and put me on my ass..

I'll deal with it in the spring. I talked to the dealer, he quoted me "about" $1500.. I've got a friend nearby who owns Motion Craft in East Aurora. He said he could do the job, and I completely trust the job will be done right. He will save me a LOT over the dealers price, too.

A Roadie motor has to have the heads and barrels off to split the cases to get at the gears. No way I'm gonna do that myself. After 80,000 miles I think I'll have him do a valve job, as long as it's apart..

I'm at that age where I just dont enjoy doing the big jobs like I used to.

I hope your guy will work with you to get it done well, not having to have it done the next week should smooth things out. I would NEVER EVER trust a random dealership/indy to split the cases and put it all back together right. I just drove my A4 across 2 state lines and sat in a motel for 2.5 days while the guys that build and race Audis breathed on my car. Besides I opted for a -15lb flywheel and S4 clutch to handle the extra snap of the ECU remap. You could never trust a VAG dealership with that sort of thing. IMHO it's well worth some extra expense and inconvenience to have the correct person do the job. Your lucky to have someone close to you. If I had to split the cases on either of my bikes Sean would be getting a call first. Glad it didnt dump you on your caboose and I hope it's ready to rock for spring.
 
Got some news yesterday from the guy who was going to repair the transmission in the Roadstar. His mechanic evidently is quitting, and unless he changes his mind, Tim won't be able to take on the job. It looks like the bike is going to the dealer (Don George's) for the work next spring. I did tell Tim that I could get the bike to him any time during winter if his guy changes his mind and stays on. He said he would take on the job if Josh doesn't leave the shop. Pioneer Motorsports mechanic told me to part out the bike and buy another one. Ain't gonna happen. I suppose if I drained the oil and the 3 shift dogs came out, it would be rideable, but 4th gear crusing would suck. Somebody's gonna fix the bike, I'm not parting it out.
 
Phil, AKA Fire Medic hooked me up with an old friend near Rochester NY who will be able to do the transmission work on the Roadie after the holidays. He seemed to think the problem may not be sheared off shift dogs, and asked me to drain oil to find any pieces. Fingers crossed its just something like a shift segment gone bad, but I doubt it. I'm gonna get the bike flatbeded over to him. He will keep it there till spring. AAA flat beds bikes, so the transportation won't cost me anything.. Fingers crossed.
 
Between the Vmax and the Roadstar, I've got 213,000 miles. Add the other Yamahas I've owned since 1973, that's over 320,000 miles. This is the first motor I've ever had to tear down for repairs. I can't complain.
 
What year and CC is the Roadstar? I can look at the fiche and see which design it is on the shift segment.
 
2002, 1600cc. If there was a bad shift segment would the shifter still seem to go into 5th? When I go from what was 5th down to 4th, it shifts down ok, but klunks a bit, kinda like neutral to 1st when the bike is not warmed up. 15/40 Rotella oil. All other gears work fine.
 
It's the billet type segment so having a pin come out is not likely. Usually when the pin comes out you can feel like you're reaching for the gear but grabbing air. If it clicks and feels like it's engaging but not holding then it's likely a trans issue (especially if it's just the one gear). From looking at the gear dog design i would speculate that the dogs sheared off of the 2-3 pinion gear. The 5th wheel gear is notched out as part of the design which makes them weaker but I believe that's what holds together your 2nd gear.
 
That's what I was thinking, too.. Better now than in June, on the way to Thunder.. I guess I was lucky those busted dogs didn't get tangled up in the gears and sent me sliding down the road.
 
I drained the oil out of the Roadstars rear drain plug this afternoon, and found no metal particles or gear teeth. The level was low, I drained it cold, and the oil came out slowly. I filled the motor with fresh oil, and want for a slow ride around the neighborhood. It shifts 1st to 4th perfectly. It kinda seems like the 4th to 5th shift is kind of different than I remember it. Like it's not a precise click into 5th. Still no luck, so I took the bike home and drained the oil out. It ran out in a strong flow, but still no pieces. I've got a strong magnet, and found absolutely no metallic shavings or anything out of order.

Sean gave me good advice about it probably not being a shift sector, but I'm still hoping there's a chance it could be a part that isn't inside the cases. We will find out when I get the bike to the shop in Rochester, but I'm open to any comment or advice. I've been riding since 1967, and only had to get into one engine, a Honda 160 that needed a crankshaft back in 1969, so I'm out of practice working on the internal stuff.

An update. RoadStars have 2 drain plugs, one front left and one way in the back of the motor. I drained the rear plug, thinking that any transmission debris would come out that hole. Well, after taking a look at the parts fiche, I discovered that drain only drains out an oil tank. This tank is part of the crankcase, but only connected to the actual engine/transmission cavity by feed and purge hoses. The debris wouldn't come out back there, so I have to drain the FRONT plug to clear any crap out of the engine. Stay tuned, I'll keep everyone interested posted.
 
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Pulled the front plug to drain the crankcase just now. Found nothing. Not even any tiny ground up bits with my magnet....

Done till the mechanic gets into the cases to have a look.
 

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