Clutch/transmission Juddery And No Neutral

I have a 1997 VFR 750 with 73k miles.

I bought it in December '15 for quite cheap.  It had been wrecked, but not badly.  I did not test drive it, but shifted through the gears while it was on the center stand.

The motor runs quite well with a slight hesitation around 2-2.5k rpms.

I have been working on wiring, fairings, and put a new radiator on.  Today was the day I decided to take it around the neighborhood and check for leaks and see how everything performed.

Immediately there was an issue.  I had to rev the bike to 4-5k and slowly let the clutch out slipping the whole way for it to get moving without shutting off.  I could tolerate this if it weren't for the fact that once in motion, at low (2-6k) rpms the bike will judder at most any speed and if you leave the clutch engaged it will shut off.  

I then found that I could no longer get the bike into neutral.  No amount of fiddling, rolling, clutching, or wiggling will get it back into neutral.  [It is still in gear as I type this.]

I cranked it again and started home, the same problem occoured.

--*slowwwly let the clutch out, bike begins to move

--*clutch in*

--coast for a second not losing any speed

--*let clutch out* 

--whole bike bucks and struggles to run and will eventually shut off again if you leave the clutch out

I was only able to get it home by revving high and letting the clutch only 60% out.

I know my way around a wrench, so if I can pinpoint the problem, I believe I can fix it and still come out sub $1000 for this bike.

I just don't know where to start with diagnosing this.  

Could it be the judder spring, or just a severely worn clutch?  The fact that I can't get it into neutral worries me it's the gears, dogs, whatever that are ruined. 

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Is it possible the shift lever is way out of adjustment and your current gear range is 2-6? In other words, adjustment won't allow neutral or first gear and your actually starting out in 2nd gear.

Cheers,

Glenn

I'd do the simple thing first, which is to renew the clutch fluid and bleed any air out, and make sure the clutch is engaging/disengaging as it should. However from your description however this could be a combination of carb (bucking and surging) and gearbox issues (won't shift).

I'm pretty sure that even with the clutch fully engaged and the engine off, you should be able to rock the wheel back and forth and get right up and down through the gearbox. If not then it sounds like a shift fork/shift drum problem, which would need a full teardown to find. I don't believe that you can adjust a shift lever badly so you only get 2-6, the shift lever and detente simply go back and forth, and rotate the shift drum forwards or back. I guess you could have wear/breakage in the detente mechanism that would stop the drum rotating fully.

I'll have to get back to where I'm storing it to check.

But to clarify, adjusting the shift lever up some can allow it to go all the way down could potentially let it go into first gear?

And Terry, with what you were saying about the engine off and clutch engaged...I cannot get through all the gears.  Only 3-4 shifts beyond what I think is 1 (if I remember the feel), and that was by rolling the bike back and forth.  Does that point to not being able to get into first, or to a detent problem?

Thank you both!

I'll have to get back to where I'm storing it to check.

But to clarify, adjusting the shift lever up some can allow it to go all the way down could potentially let it go into first gear?

And Terry, with what you were saying about the engine off and clutch engaged...I cannot get through all the gears.  Only 3-4 shifts beyond what I think is 1 (if I remember the feel), and that was by rolling the bike back and forth.  Does that point to not being able to get into first, or to a detent problem?

Thank you both!

I don't believe the shift lever position will be part of this but by all means adjust it and see. The lever should only have roughly 15 degrees movement up or down from centre, which is dictated by the detente mechanism that rotates the shift star. If the detente mechanism is worn I would expect the lever to feel sloppy and not crisply engaging the shift star.

The most likely bits to wear/fail in the gearbox would be the shift forks. One end of the shift fork engages a slot on the shift drum, and rotating the drum causes the shift fork to move sideways. The forked end of the fork is what pushes the gears side-to-side to change gear. If a shift fork breaks, then it will no longer be able to shift gears. There are 3 shift forks in the VFR. If you look up the parts fiche eg http://http://www.pa...DRUM/parts.html you can see these parts.

When you shift the gears with the engine off, you usually need to rotate the back wheel so that the dogs on one gear can mate with the slots in the next gear. I lightly load the gearshift and then rotate the wheel until it goes into the next gear, usually with a click and clunk. Let the lever return to the centre position, and then repeat for the next gear. You won't be able to work right through the gearbox without rotating the wheel some. 

^^^ Changing gears with the engine off by rocking the wheel back and forth should be pretty easy to do if the gearbox is healthy.  Even finding neutral shouldn't be very difficult. 

Guys, thank you all so much for your answers and suggestions....but I am the biggest idiot for not noticing this earlier.

The left front footpeg was broken, so i removed it and I am waiting my eBay replacement to arrive.  I rode the bike yesterday without it, just keeping my foot next to the bike.

I put the shift lever on the wrong direction, as in facing forwards (like several bikes/dirtbikes I've owned before).  So I was going starting in second, and that's also why I couldn't find neutral...because it was opposite of the way I was trying to go.

I flipped it around and it's mint now.  I cannot believe it was that simple, but I'm thankful it was. 

It is the simple things that give us the most problems

Happy ending!  :cheerleader: