BigRed gear change

[Hair Bear Bunch]

Dug the Br out of the shed for the first time in weeks and for some reason the shifter seems not at all well.
Selecting 1st from standstill is fine, but changing up 2-3-4-5 feels very stiff, feels almost as if you are forcing something to engage. The pedal lifts as I would expect, but then you have to give it a bit of 'extra' and it 'clonks' into place. Going down appears to be Ok, the only other symptom is a missing neutral light but I dought the two are connected.
Any ideas?
Thanks, Rob.

[Flossyb20]

Sounds like you shifter springs are wearing out...common problem in the 250sx, and I would assume in the BR's as well. Do a quick search on here for 250sx shifter problems, and you should find a few great threads with the fix...I thinks you have to get 2 small parts, still available through Honda.

[Hair Bear Bunch]

Thanks for that, I'll go and have a look.

[kb0nly]

I would drop the oil, look for any signs of trouble, and check the clutch adjustment as well on her. Couldn't hurt. My 84 200ES when i got it was stiff to shift to a higher gear, pushing down, but going up to a lower gear seemed fine. I did an oil change and checked the clutch adjustment and found the previous owner didn't have it adjusted right, after doing those two things it came back to normal. Maybe i got lucky but thats all i ended up doing.

The 250 is a smidge different and i have heard about that issue that Flossy mentioned, but normally thats not a sudden change. You made it sound like it worked fine the last time you rode it and now suddenly the problem is there? I would go over everything to find what changed. Of course the spring could have broke the first time you went to shift or maybe the last time you put it away but who knows. The neutral light not working is that stupid electrical connector on the neutral switch, its a common problem on the 250. Last one i dealt with i chopped off the connector and soldered the wire right to the terminal on the switch then covered it with heat shrink tubing, fixed it for good!

[tri again]

yeah

try search key for 'shift' as it will pull up most everything.

there are 2 pins that can come loose and then bend or break
but both still avail cheap.
and it seems to get worse slowly as they back out.
Theres also a bracket on the shift shaft that can crack and very available.

I have posted the part numbers a few times in the last month.

Left side cover comes off, lay trike on right side as dead level as you can get it.

My typing might wake the baby so try the search key and you'll see tons of pix.
if not, I'll post more tomorrow.

bikebandit.com has the parts diagrams
loosely under shift linkage or shift drum / shift parts

The only real pain is not knowing what's actually wrong and then the springs in the shift drum star wheel.
IF that pin has come loose. It will rotate as you operate the shifter. pic #2
Hard to see but obvious. and that one cannot be bent at all.
I had tp spin mine in a drill to see that it was no good.

but also 90% chance it's what you'll see in pic 5.
Just under the shift shaft bracket (called arm, shifter) is a threaded pin
that you may be able to simply tighten and reassemble. picture #1.

Also heard that the 'shift drum stopper' can come loose or bend too. but rare.

Don't drop anything down inside the engine and you may want a new side
cover gasket altho I reused mine 3x.

Also note that the shift shaft runs into a splined lever on the opposite side of the engine
so be very gentle pulling that out and wiggle back in.
Not super delicate but no reason to pull the other side cover off either.

Thanks to flyingw for the pix btw

Just do NOT take the right angle drive output shaft apart, for any reason as seen in the pix.
FW was doing a complete overhaul