Q: I’ve just been reading about this recall on Yamaha’s ‘super-fancy’ R1 regarding gearbox issues. And this is why I’m writing because my old 1983 Kawasaki GPz1100 also has very irritating gearbox issues as well.
Yes, I know it’s an old bike with 85,000km thrown through the motor but the problem gets worse by the day. First gear is OK but when I go into second it always jumps out and scares me! If I change gear slowly, it’s not too bad. The gear linkage was all ‘sloppy’ so I had new bushes and things made to make it like new again, but it hasn’t really cured the problem. I can hold it in gear but I’d imagine that’s not a good thing to do.
So, you clever guys, what are my options here because I believe parts are very scarce for this particular model?
Arno
A: I wouldn’t worry about parts because Kawasaki are very good with spares for their old models, like this, or you’ll find them on the internet somewhere.
But the problem lays with the selector dogs on the second gear and the slots they go into on the accompanying drive gear. They ‘round-off’ over time, and consequently jump out when engaged and cause this problem.
So you now have two options. Buy new gears and install them, or source a complete second hand good condition gearbox for this model. Or, take out your existing gears and find a reputable engineer than can undercut your old gears, but make sure they know exactly what they’re doing or you’ll have to go through the process all over again!
Either way you’ll have to remove the motor and split the crankcases to repair the gears, so make sure you’re up to that task also, or take it to a Kawasaki dealer, which will not be cheap, obviously. Hope this helps?
