Good Morning,

I went for a ride last night on my 2006 Road Star Silverado, which has 13K miles on it. Never a problem and ran great on the way to the store. As I turned a corner on the return trip and down shifted, the bike failed to respond to releasing the clutch and it was as if I was in Neutral.

I stopped on the side of the road and ran through the gears to find neutral, letting out the clutch it idled normally. I shifted into first and let the clutch out, the bike tried to move forward, emitted some horrible mechanical sounds (like gears not messing) and then the bike shut off. Kind of sounded like a 10 speed bike with the chain derailing then jamming. Nice huh?

The bike will then start right up and seem fine after placing the bike in neutral. Taking off in second gear the bike responds as above. At this point, I place the bike on a trailer and took it home.

I don't see many topics on transmission failure or problems, unless I simply am to much of a forum novice to find it. I am wondering if this is a problem with a simple cause solution or is this going to be $$$$$.

My questions to you all, is "Any Ideas?" I usually do my own maintenance and repairs but never worked on a bike with this configuration. I guess checking the transfer gears and chain might be a first check however since it idles in neutral, I suspect that is fine. What might I be able to check myself before taking it to a dealer, I'd rather work on it myself if possible.

Any help or hints are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

its just an idea, but the nut that holds the front pulley often gets loose on these bikes.. the pulley that drives the belt.. you might want to look there first..

Ha, wouldn't be great if that is the problem and it just well could be. Under strain the pulley could shift and rub the case. I'll check that out tonight. I had planned on dismantling the outer covers around the transmission first but after that am not sure what to do next, if it is internal, not sure what mechanism to suspect. If it is internal, would rather plop a engine/transmission at the dealer door rather than the labor to dismantle it also. No doubt it has to come off to service it internally. A dealer would probably want to see it assembled to evaluate the problem before I did that.

No aware of any transmisson problems like you describe. Most problem had to do with circlip that holds the higher gears.

Start with nighstar's suggestion re the front pulley.

Doc

I'm interested......

The only problem I've had with my 06 Silverado was to have the clutch replaced at 37,700miles. But nothing like he described. The clutch just started slipping, no noise.

So far at home I have begun to investigate the problem and did a few more tests and have found out that it will also "grind" in 3 & 4th gear while on a stand. (at a slow idle speed of course) A Yamaha mechanic suggested that test to see if the internal shifting forks were bent. So it seems to be a mis-meshing in all gears. The bike also appears to have difficulty running up and down the gears while stationary (without using clutch) with engine off. At this point I don't know if a stationary bike should run through the gears up and down while not running? I believe it should shift freekt

Due to the difficult shifting, I decided the gear shifting mechanism could be a fault, hoping actually rather than further in. I have removed the clutch cover to get at the shifter mechanism and clutch. The shifter has trouble running through gears and I can see it does not freely rotate the shifting shaft manually. At that time no clutch lever to use.

I am at a bit of a loss on how to proceed. How to isolate the area in trouble, tranny gears, shifting mechanism, or shifting shaft?

My questions to you all?
1) If I remove the shifting mechanism, should the shifting shaft turn freely
2) Any ideas on how to test for problem area, that is internal to transmission such as bent
shift arms or shifting shaft which is external to cracking open the transmission.
3) Any comments on checking out shifting mechanism operation further?

Any help or hints are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Did you check the primary pulley? Not that I doubt your tendency to suspect the tranny, but you don't here of them crapping out very often. where as many have had the pulley go loose........

Primary pulley seems tight, and I don't think it would cause grinding noise at take off, more at higher speed. Thanks for the idea.

Have you checked the bearing in the pressure plate? there have been failures on them. they use a 6003 bearing, but there has been found a better replacement for it nsk7003b.

Now I have egg on my face. A part of my problem was the primary pulley for the belt drive being loose. Nightstar57 you get a gold star!

I also removed the clutch plates to see how easily I could spin the transmission by hand and cycle through the gears. All seemed to work just fine. Got to test it some more. I believe it was jammed, justifying my breaking it down, but is operating properly at this point.

Meanwhile, I rechecked the rear wheel drive pulley at the transfer case, which drives the rear wheel belt. My first check I thought it was secure. It had indeed come loose to the extend that the pulley could make it off the teeth on the shaft and freewheel. I am now assuming that this resulted in the grinding noise as I was trying to take off. Nice that it happened when I was almost stopped anyway. Next time I'll make sure I have adequate lighting in the work area.

I then noticed the backlash in the transfer case seems to be like 10-15 degrees in rotation before the chain slop tightens up and stops it. Since this is not adjustable, does anyone know if this is a normal about of rotational slop? Could there me wear on the other side? Ugh.

I may now have to continue this to removing the transfer case cover to see if all is well there.

Thoughts anyone on the slop?

At this point, after worrying about the chain slop, I am thinking I will reassembly it now and test it out when the gaskets come in.

Thanks guys.