I have done almost 2000 miles on the Dreer Commando I purchased about a year ago,no gearbox problems but went for a ride yesterday and started having difficulty in selecting !st gear at a standstill from neutral. Everything seemed okay on its previous outing so something is obviously wearing and finally reached the point that it will no longer snick into gear but what? There is no problem with gear selection while moving it is only when starting off. I've searched a bit online as other people have had this problem but can't come up with a definitive answer. Any ideas?
difficulty selecting 1st gear from neutral
- Thread starter edward
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concours said:
+1
Also, if your primary chain/belt is too tight that can cause the same situation
rvich
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If the drive chain is too tight you could actually hit a bump in the road hard enough to jerk the transmission toward the rear of the bike, thus putting more tension on the primary chain. Start with the drive chain and work your way forward into the primary.
Russ
Russ
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In order of priority I've run into which may not apply to any one else.
1. 1st gear paper thin bush dissolving or breaking up.
2. Pawl spring going away with age and cosmic rays.
3. Worn sleeve and other bushes creating shaft mis alignments
4. Primary drive over tight
5. Lube clogged plates
6. Shifter dog faces getting smeared out of square d/t above.
1. 1st gear paper thin bush dissolving or breaking up.
2. Pawl spring going away with age and cosmic rays.
3. Worn sleeve and other bushes creating shaft mis alignments
4. Primary drive over tight
5. Lube clogged plates
6. Shifter dog faces getting smeared out of square d/t above.
hobot said:
Good No 1 point, Steve.
If your clutch or primary are not the problem, drain the gearbox oil and look for bronze swarf and run a magnet through the oil to collect ferrous debris. There should only be a tiny amout of both in a mature 'box. If there is a lot of either or both, it's time to look inside.
I had that thin 1st gear bush work its way out of its bore. This is worth looking at if your clutch and primary chain / belt check out OK (hopefully the problem is external). If it turns out that you have to go as far as removing the inner gearbox case, you should examine everything while you're in there.
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As per #1, which is right there to deal with once outer cover off with thoughts of short gutting a full going through like I did, once, is that little bugger causes other bushes to get shorting life so must go back in again before the stupid thin bush wears out again. When running Peel stupidly hard as I could everywhere all the time so often in lower gears and AMC finally all renewed at once, I'd go through two #1 bushes before modified sleeve bushes let clutch wobble too much for a belt drive. Happy quality
fettering time in Commando worship ritual.
fettering time in Commando worship ritual.
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Tear the whole kit n' kaboodle apart and clean and inspect and adjust .
ashman
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Maybe its just the clutch plates need a good clean and adjustment, it just part of mainentance thing, pull the clutch plates out and check the primary chain for the right adjustment, then a gear box oil change to see whats in the oil, as for the clutch rod seal, I just put the right amount of gear oil in my box, I messure it with a messuring cup and I put grease on my clutch rod, in 38 years of ownership I have never had any gear box oil go into my primary, it only gets in there if you overfill your gearbox.
Good luck with it.
Ashley
Good luck with it.
Ashley
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It took me a few times of 'over filling' to normal and clogged plates cleaning to learn the correct lower level of AMC filling and putting ATF in primary. Only reason to open primary, years at a go, is something else wrong or change sprockets or chain. Always good to see someone's else's worn out items so hope we get to learn what is found this time into it.
The good news is the problem is solved, the bad news is I don't know how. I loctited both bearings which were only a push fit, replacing the roller lay with one of Mick Hemmings ball bearings, replaced only the sliding bushes(as there was no sign of bronze in the oil) and the usual seals and O rings, replaced one of the gears because the case hardening was showing a bit too much wear, replaced the ratchet spring only because it looked a bit corroded and put Nulon additive in the oil. I have done about 300 miles since rebuilding it and everything works fine, it now selects 1st from neutral everytime. I wish I knew what I did right.
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can you describe exactly what is going wrong. I used to have problems selecting first. I would always crunch when forcing it in. A friend with a triumph told me to pull the clutch in, and kick the g/box over to free the clutch. That worked every time. I still do that if I haven't ridden the bike for a couple of days. You can feel it let go. This may not be your problem, but I you don't know about this, you do now. Saves work.
all the best Dereck
all the best Dereck
To Kerinorton,
The symptoms you describe sound classically like clutch dragging. My problem was that when in neutral, the gear lever would move its full range but would not click into first, although there was no problem when moving and then changing from 2nd to 1st. It was not jumping out of gear, it was just the initial start off trying to select 1st from neutral (the opposite - neutral from 1st was no problem). It was getting increasingly worse so that I had to maintain pressure on the gearlever while letting the clutch out and often even this didn't work.
The symptoms you describe sound classically like clutch dragging. My problem was that when in neutral, the gear lever would move its full range but would not click into first, although there was no problem when moving and then changing from 2nd to 1st. It was not jumping out of gear, it was just the initial start off trying to select 1st from neutral (the opposite - neutral from 1st was no problem). It was getting increasingly worse so that I had to maintain pressure on the gearlever while letting the clutch out and often even this didn't work.
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