Problems shifting - Lube shifter and brake pivot

R

RonH

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I pressure wash every time I ride through rain, but own my own Hotsy hot water washer. Never caused a problem, but found lubing the shift and brake pivot every 4000 miles and most importantly the brake and clutch levers during an oil change makes a noticable improvement in operation. Mostly the levers.
 

Curt

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The problem is dust and sand, not water intrusion, so it matters little what kind of grease is used. Grit gets in there and interferes with the (inexplicably) exquisitely sensitive clearances of the shift mechanism. An O-ring seal would prevent the problem, and it's too bad there isn't one.

It's advisable to disassemble, clean and grease the assembly periodically, but rarely necessary to do so in the field. WD-40 works because it liquefies the grease and flushes it out along with the grit. It should be followed up with a few drops of oil. In my experience, working the lever while adding a few drops of oil is usually by itself enough to flush out the grit, so I carry a tiny dropper bottle of 3-in-1.
 

ADKsuper10

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Curt said:
The problem is dust and sand, not water intrusion, so it matters little what kind of grease is used. Grit gets in there and interferes with the (inexplicably) exquisitely sensitive clearances of the shift mechanism. An O-ring seal would prevent the problem, and it's too bad there isn't one.

It's advisable to disassemble, clean and grease the assembly periodically, but rarely necessary to do so in the field. WD-40 works because it liquefies the grease and flushes it out along with the grit. It should be followed up with a few drops of oil. In my experience, working the lever while adding a few drops of oil is usually by itself enough to flush out the grit, so I carry a tiny dropper bottle of 3-in-1.
My buddy came by today with his GS and we (as usual) talked about the differences and similarities of the two bikes (always on tpositives). It usually ends up with me wondering if I should have bought a GS and if he should have waited and bought an S10 (his GS is a 2012). Anyway, I mentioned this little bit of maintenance to him and that I thought it made my shifting much smoother and he said he has never greased anything like this - he just brings it in for service at the dealer and they do what they do. He has about 30,000 on his GS.

We have ridden each other’s bikes and really one does not lack anything the other has as far as the riding experience.

I kinda got off topic there but it’s Friday night on a holiday weekend after all!
 

pkelly20

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Aug 29, 2017
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I decided to lube my shift lever pivot after reading this thread. 2017 ES model with 2,000 km.

Pivot bolt had blue thread locker on it. Used my ratchet and 6mm hex socket. Had to lean on it a bit but once it started to turn it was out. Forget trying to use the short Allen keys for this.

Pivot bolt had no grease and I have not ridden in rain or washed the bike enough to displace grease.

Cleaned it up and lubed it with white lithium auto grease.

There was a lot of thread lock on that bolt. More than a couple drops. It was slow to turn all the way out.


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ADKsuper10

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I had to put the muscle to mine too to loosen it. I think inward pressure on the socket while cranking on it kept it from sttripping out on me. Had to put considerable force in and counter-clockwise to prevent it from slipping and buggering it up.
 

pkelly20

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ADKsuper10 said:
I had to put the muscle to mine too to loosen it. I think inward pressure on the socket while cranking on it kept it from sttripping out on me. Had to put considerable force in and counter-clockwise to prevent it from slipping and buggering it up.
Yep - sounds about right. I wasn’t worried about stripping the hex head of the bolt, but it felt the way an aluminum bolt feels as it starts to shear, but then I saw the blue of the thread lock and knew what was going on.


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ADKsuper10

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Curt said:
The problem is dust and sand, not water intrusion, so it matters little what kind of grease is used. Grit gets in there and interferes with the (inexplicably) exquisitely sensitive clearances of the shift mechanism. An O-ring seal would prevent the problem, and it's too bad there isn't one.

It's advisable to disassemble, clean and grease the assembly periodically, but rarely necessary to do so in the field. WD-40 works because it liquefies the grease and flushes it out along with the grit. It should be followed up with a few drops of oil. In my experience, working the lever while adding a few drops of oil is usually by itself enough to flush out the grit, so I carry a tiny dropper bottle of 3-in-1.
i have to say - nice wheelie in your profile photo!
 

GSequoia

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Torrance, CA
Well here I thought that I had bad shift dogs or maybe the Super Ten had a shift drum bolt issue like the Suzuki DR350 has. I'd been noticing it being a bit tough to find neutral lately and today on the way home from work I kept having downshifting issues. Glad it's such an easy fix.

Spec calls for lithium soap grease. I'm thinking I'll take the shifter off and put a zerk in like others have done. That will effectively purge while lubing.

Quick question, though. I took the bolt off (my 2016 had factory thread locker, too, FYI) and wasn't able to easily get the bolt out from the bushing. Is this normal? I just hang greased it and put it back together figuring that I'll deal with it later when I remove the linkage and drill out the shifter.

Next question - When I take out the shifter does the linkage just press on and off the ball joints?

Thanks
 

Checkswrecks

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The bolt is really tight, due to the thread locking compound.

I just let the shifter hang on the linkage but you can remove the linkage at the spline to drill for your zirc. Just mark the split with a Sharpie so you reinstall it at the correct spline.
 

GSequoia

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The bolt is really tight, due to the thread locking compound.

I just let the shifter hang on the linkage but you can remove the linkage at the spline to drill for your zirc. Just mark the split with a Sharpie so you reinstall it at the correct spline.
That's an old trick of mine, too. Most of my bikes have paint pen on the shifter splines for just that reason. ;)
 

GSequoia

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The bolt is really tight, due to the thread locking compound.
Anyway the bolt itself was tight from the thread locker, that I'm used to. What I meant was that after I removed the bolt it stayed retained with the shifter as the bushing was holding it in place. I didn't really work that hard to try to separate them as I was a bit tight on time.
 

BaldKnob

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Anyway the bolt itself was tight from the thread locker, that I'm used to. What I meant was that after I removed the bolt it stayed retained with the shifter as the bushing was holding it in place. I didn't really work that hard to try to separate them as I was a bit tight on time.
Remove the bolt... lube the bolt with waterproof grease... reinstall. Yer dun.
 

Checkswrecks

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Anyway the bolt itself was tight from the thread locker, that I'm used to. What I meant was that after I removed the bolt it stayed retained with the shifter as the bushing was holding it in place. I didn't really work that hard to try to separate them as I was a bit tight on time.
The bolt should just slide out, as shown on page one of this thread. My guess is that there's a build-up of solidified crud in the grease groove.
 

GSequoia

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The bolt should just slide out, as shown on page one of this thread. My guess is that there's a build-up of solidified crud in the grease groove.
Kinda what I suspected (since a tight bushing wasn't mentioned anywhere else), thanks. I'll try to sneak some time out today to take it apart again since I'm working remotely for the day.
 

s.ga.rider

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I checked my recently purchased 2014 with 12500 miles today. It looks as if its been done in the past possibly. The grease on the outside of the shifter was dried out so I checked it. Inside still had a decent amount of grease. It only took a few mins but I cleaned and lubed it with honda moly, put some blue loctite back on the threads and it seems somewhat smoother.
 

wal054

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This may be a bit long. However, it most likely will be relevant. I purchased a brand new Super Tenere last week. I found from day one that often I could not change down gears. Changing up was fine. Always seemed to happen when I was coming up to an intersection, roundabout etc. I was very concerned about being rear ended because of a stall.

After reading numerous posts on the forum I dismantled and lubed the gear shifter at the pivot point. The lubing didn't make a difference to my problem.

After a lot of riding and being able to replicate the problem quite often I stumbled on a process to prevent it from happening. I found that if I lightly pressed up the gear shifter after changing down a gear the problem would not occur. So now I could ride the bike safely. Now bear with me I will eventually get to the good bit.

I rang my dealer (in Goulburn 100 km away) and discussed the problem with him and he advised to bring the bike in so that he could check. One of the mechanics rode the bike around town and advised that he could not replicate the problem. He asked another to take the bike for a run. As soon as he returned he adjusted the gear lever so that the part of the lever that you move with your toe was lowered (about 5mm). I then took the bike for a test run and now it changes gear as one would expect.

So it appears that I was not moving my size 12EEE foot far away from the gear change lever to allow it to return to the rest position when frequently changing gears when coming up to intersections etc. Lowering the tip of the gear change lever fixed the problem.

Anyway, a big shout out for Chris Weekes Motorcycles in Goulburn for caring about my problem and coming up with a solution.:):):)

Hope my experience may be of use to someone
 

shift_enter

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...
So it appears that I was not moving my size 12EEE foot far away from the gear change lever to allow it to return to the rest position when frequently changing gears when coming up to intersections etc. Lowering the tip of the gear change lever fixed the problem.
...
I was doing the same thing with the motorcycle boots I just bought… I thought it was a serious issue with the transmission or some thing. Now I just make sure to tap my toes down in my boot to give the lever enough space to reset. I also adjusted the linkage.

when removing the bolt I stripped it. I don’t want to remove it again and end up with another stripped bolt.
 

Pdrhound

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High desert
so, what to do when this does not fix the problem???? i've lubed mine many times but now, freshly lubed it still does not want to down shift.
 
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