Difficult 1st gear from neutral

Hi,

My first post in a looong time. I rebuilt my gearbox several years ago according to Old Brits. Have put many miles on it and it shifts very well through all gears but when shifting into first gear from neutral it has trouble. I've seen a few other posts about this but I never could find a final cause.

Basically from neutral I have to hold the selector up with my toe and release the clutch a little to get it to go into first. Just moving the selector up doesn't give me a click or any engagement. Kind of a pain.

The gearbox works very well under all other circumstances including 2nd into 1st, 1st to neutral etc. and it has never popped out of 1st once engaged.

My first thought is ratchet plate/pawl weirdness but not sure....any suggestions.

Thanks,
Joe

Check clutch adjustment or clutch stack height. If clutch does not disengage totally then 1st gear engagement can be "notchy!"
Mike

Thanks for the reply,

I'm thinking its not the clutch as I have to hold the gear selector up with my toe then very slightly/slowly release the clutch to feel the gears start to mesh...then it will engage 1st. The gear selector wont go into the 1st gear position not will it engage the gear until I let the clutch out a bit. Probably not the best way to do things but it works. Again this is only for N to 1st.

Joe

Mine does this when the primary chain is too tight.

[Edit] Doh! Read it properly, I have the opposite, difficult to get into neutral.

Check the shifter pawl spring for wear and the pawl itself.

All of the above plus consider paper thin 1st gear bush going away allowing that cog to tip some out of alignment till spun up some. The pawl spring can be a bugger to detect if not rusted-broken and not bad idea to keep a spare on hand as well as the thin 1st gear bush. Nuts loose on ends of main shaft might be adding to this.

hope its not the nut on the end of the main shaft behind the clutch actuator. Your g/b could be full of metal if it is. Make sure you have no metal in your oil. Stupid system for locking that nut [ [ ie none ] except loctiting it in place.

I had a post on this a couple of months ago and ended up stripping the gearbox completely, found some problems which made the strip worthwhile but still no definitive answer. I was talking to Mick Hemmings as I decided to replace the roller lay with one of his ball races and he reckons that if the bearings are not tight in the case(which was one of the problems I found) then this can cause difficulty selecting 1st from neutral. I'll try to report back when I get the bike going again.

edward said:

I had a post on this a couple of months ago and ended up stripping the gearbox completely, found some problems which made the strip worthwhile but still no definitive answer. I was talking to Mick Hemmings as I decided to replace the roller lay with one of his ball races and he reckons that if the bearings are not tight in the case(which was one of the problems I found) then this can cause difficulty selecting 1st from neutral. I'll try to report back when I get the bike going again.

Click to expand...

There are a few things that can cause the first gear jumpout under load. For me it was the spring and detent plunger on the bottom of the gearbox.

Item 14 and 15.
http://www.oldbritts.com/1972_g6.html

I saved your hard earned info Ludwig and have a gearbox opened up to examine this area of interest as you suggest but don't have any reason that I can tell to risk screwing up a sweet-thoughtless shifting tranny. It boils down to an emotional or philosophical quandary - If it ain't broke, should ya fix it?

Yeah, I saved it too in case it happens to me, but as long as it's working I'm not messing with it.