In Search of Neutral

Tornado · Jul 26, 2025

Been helping with various problems on a friends MK111 bike. Had gb apart to sort out KS ratchet not engaging (worn off edge on ratchet...replaced new). Rest of gb innards looked nice...all gear teeth surfaces clean and smooth etc. Roller layshaft and shim in place, though endfloat only around 4-5 thou with my dial guage.

All back together. Owner has had issues finding neutral previous to our work and still has problems after our work. There is a fair amount of slop in the shifter lever...both lost motion up/down and also wallowing in the lever pivot bush. This may be contributing to neutral being hard to find 1st to N and 2nd to N. Typically it skips past N going either way. Other things to consider? Any chance the cam plate Neutral notch or the detent plunger are worn?

Richard Tool · Jul 26, 2025

Tornado said:
Been helping with various problems on a friends MK111 bike. Had gb apart to sort out KS ratchet not engaging (worn off edge on ratchet...replaced new). Rest of gb innards looked nice...all gear teeth surfaces clean and smooth etc. Roller layshaft and shim in place, though endfloat only around 4-5 thou with my dial guage.

All back together. Owner has had issues finding neutral previous to our work and still has problems after our work. There is a fair amount of slop in the shifter lever...both lost motion up/down and also wallowing in the lever pivot bush. This may be contributing to neutral being hard to find 1st to N and 2nd to N. Typically it skips past N going either way. Other things to consider? Any chance the cam plate Neutral notch or the detent plunger are worn?

Try slacking primary chain a tad .

Tornado · Jul 26, 2025

Mk3 has auto hydrodraulic tensioner...no adjustment possible.

robs ss · Jul 26, 2025

Did you pay attention to the gap (0.005" ?) between the hair spring each side of the pawl?

Tornado · Jul 26, 2025

robs ss said:
Did you pay attention to the gap (0.005" ?) between the hair spring each side of the pawl?

Yes...there was tiny bit of free play/daylight between ends of pawl and spring...as per guidance on the Hemmings video.

Tornado · Jul 26, 2025

Doing some googling...there seems to be a plethora of reasons for poor neutral selection....from clutch plate contamination/warpage, notched clutch hub, worn clutch bearing, poor shifter lever movement, shifter shaft spline/coupler wear and even the neutral light switch adjustment causing too much pressure on the cam plate bump. Lots of things to look at....

I think I'll start by looking into the neutral light swtich adjustment...we did check the connections with a multimeter at switch to confirm it is working when shifting to/from neutral...but the light on the console doesn't work (bulb or a connection issue)....perhaps a previous attempt to fix that lead to adjusting switch too close to camplate button....

nortonmargie · Jul 27, 2025

Joke from The Motor Cycle, circa 1958: Lady is looking out back door at husband, working on his British twin.
"What is the problem?" "I can't find neutral" "You should learn to put things back where you find them"

When I have problems with finding neutral on my Mark III, it's generally due to dirty clutch plates.

Madnorton · Jul 28, 2025

The fact this occurs on ride just after the cable has just been fitted, then it most probably has settled a little. Just reduce the play a turn at a the clutch lever until it just snicks into neutral nicely then that should be fine for a good while.

jimbo · Jul 29, 2025

My pre MK3's shift great and are the benchmarks . The MK3 is not. If I had to guess some of the problem is the reduced feeling and slop in the extra linkage. But it could be the switch to camplate interface has alot to do with it.

Torontonian · Jul 29, 2025

If you have any neutral indicator issues or shifting to it , after replacing the likely notched clutch center , contaminated clutch plates , etc. , it's a total gearbox rebuild to pull the camplate and replace the neutral bump and switch with the new style .
Or simply back off the switch adjuster nut from any contact at all to identify if it's that problem , simplest action to eliminate it as the problem .

In Search of Neutral

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