Shifting 1st to 2nd not working right

NickZ · 2026-01-20T17:26:06-0700

New build 1973 750, rebuilt gearbox, shifted fine on the bench and statically on the bike it goes through the gears normally. When riding it under power it goes into first gear no problem, but when I try upshift into 2nd, it feels like shifter isn’t catching anything and there is only spring resistance moving lever fully up or down. Occasionally it will work right and then shifts fine up thru higher gears and down shifting. No problem finding neutral. I can sort of force it to work by letting the clutch out a little while attempting the 1st to 2nd shift.

NickZ · 2026-01-20T17:27:44-0700

I have adjusted the primary to be sure it is not too tight.
Is there anything else I should try before diving into the gearbox?

L.A.B. · 2026-01-20T17:43:14-0700

NickZ said:
it feels like shifter isn’t catching anything and there is only spring resistance moving lever fully up or down.

Classic case of the ratchet spring not being set correctly.

mdt-son · 2026-01-20T18:38:31-0700

G

Thread 'gearbox ratchet pawl spring'

Apr 1, 2023

What happens when the legs of the dogleg spring are too far from the pawl ?

The problem I'm having is that randomly the bike will not shift into second. I move the lever and nothing happens. Fiddling around with it will eventually get it to shift and then it works fine.

Checking the space between the spring and the pawl I have ~0.055", quite a bit more than 0.010-0.015. Do you think that resetting the clearance will solve the problem or should I keep looking ?

Thanks
Greg

- Knut

Shifting 1st to 2nd not working right

NickZ

NickZ

L.A.B.

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mdt-son

Thread 'gearbox ratchet pawl spring'

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