Picked up a huge motorcycle jack today after work....Might be a little too big for the KLX, but I'll make it work. Might just have to lay a spare piece of lumber across the soft platforms to make a better lift space for it, but I'll deal with it all tomorrow. Gonna be spending my time taking apart what I need to for confirmation on the shift star. If I get started early enough, hopefully I can get my order filled by the end of the day and have it shipped tomorrow evening or Wednesday.

Pictures to come!

 

Good idea to "confirm" your shifter issue before starting on other mods.

I realize you just picked up a lift, but I should comment that this particular work can be done on the ground, even if you lean the bike against a wall or other fixed object to the bike is tilted to its right side. Oops, keep it vertical until you get the cover off and recover the broken peg first - I don't think broken part could roll back into the main case through the oil drain passage, but no sense tempting fate! You will probably need it on the ground to break the C/S sprocket nut loose. In gear, sixth is a good choice , with a friend standing on the rear brake pedal and you with a breaker bar on the sprocket nut should do it. It can be a bear if this is the first time the nut has been removed.

Good luck!
TC

 

GBAUTO,
That must have taken a serious hit to the shifter. Did the centering stud bend too, or did the weld give before anything else did?

TC

 

timc63-From what everybody says/suggests and what's happening with it, it sure seems like it would be the shift star. Sliding on left side, going down at 40mph, not shifting out of the gear it was in (6th), it all adds up. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to have a spare one of those laying around just in case that isn't it and it breaks later, but I'd rather buy what I need all at once so I don't have several packages showing up at once. I know that I could leave it just leaning against the kickstand to do the work, and I also contemplated laying it over on the right side just so I wouldn't have to drain the oil, but oh well. I'll drain the oil, then lift it, and then take things apart. Or I might start taking things apart while the oil is draining, and see where I end up. I have access to a big air compressor and breaking the c/s sprocket nut loose shouldn't be a problem, but I will be doing this alone. Sure I could stand on the rear brake myself and reach over with the impact to bust it loose, but I'm still feeling the headache from going down. As far as I know this will be the first time the nut has been removed, and I'm debating on whether or not I want to throw on a sprocket my buddy gave me for this bike, I believe it's a 15t.

As far as GBAUTO goes, I hope I didn't do anything that bad, but also hope he was able to get it fixed relatively quickly and easily. It seems like that would be something that would happen at a deliberate drop or throw down, instead of just a slide. I should point out that I was already turning before my bike swept out from under me. It wasn't like it pulled itself out. I just leaned too far on too cold of tires and road with a little sand to help it wash out, so it was only maybe a foot or two away from the ground, and with forward momentum.

 

timc63-Great tip on having someone stand on the rear brake for me. I was able to find a socket that fit (1-1/16") with a 2 1/2' breaker bar, but couldn't get it loose by myself. I even tried sitting on the bike both ways so I could press the brake and pull on the bar. No go. Had a friend come stand on it and I was able to bust it loose fairly easy. The washer behind it was bent up in one spot, not sure if that's normal, but hasn't seemed to effect anything negatively yet.

I woke up around 9 this morning, and instead of jumping in to get started, I rolled around in bed watching videos on youtube until about 11:30. I didn't work on it non stop as I was also being my own dj, working on another project, and taking frequent breaks after what I would consider milestones. We had a high of 55F where I'm at today, with strong gusts, and I was working in the shade. Sure I could have put on pants and something with sleeves, but shorts and a tank top have less to get in the way.

My first and longest attempt at finding out what was wrong was me trying to do it all without taking off the sprocket. I had it loose, chain attached still, and was ALMOST able to get the case cover off. If I just had another 2-3mm of play....Couldn't get anything to work, so I broke down and bought a chain breaker.

When I drained the oil, I heard a plop but I figured this was just the draining oil hitting the old oil in the pan. We'll get back to that later. Everything came apart really nicely, and I took a bit of extra time to clean everything up a decent amount. For some reason the backside of my engine is particularly gunky. I can understand by the chain and sprockets because of chain wax, but the entire backside of the engine? I'll have time to clean it up.

Once I was finally able to loosen up the case cover, I had busted the gasket so I put one of those in my shopping cart as well. Finally get the cover off, and I can tell I busted on of the pegs on the star. No big deal, found the problem. Now to find that pesky part.....Hmmm....Cool, got it. Somehow got spun around and was semi attached to another piece in that area of the case. Oh ****, wait. I see two little pegs have busted off of the star. Great, now I've gotta find another one. No luck after about 20 minutes of searching in that little area, so I decide to take things apart carefully.

I then pull the shifter peg and the little shift fork that looks like a wrench. Got it set aside and go back for the washer. Right as I'm about to grab it, the little thing drops down into the pan that now has about 3ish qts of oil in it. Not wanting to move on and forget about it, I put everything on hold and go get a magnet.

I move the oil pan out from under the bike and start dragging the magnet across the bottom of the pan. It takes a while, but then I hear that satisfying *click*. I pull the magnet out and you wouldn't believe what was on the end. That other little peg piece that I had broken off. It had caused the plop when I pulled the plug to drain the oil. So I clean it up, set it aside and shortly thereafter find my washer.

Moving on, I get ready to pull the star so I take my little allen wrench and pop loose that bolt. The covering piece with the keyhole comes off fairly easily. Now I'm stuck. I've taken off the 10mm nut for the spring arm, and it won't come off, and the star wiggles a bit, but it won't come off either. I've tried holding the spring arm down while grabbing the star, but still nothing. Help me out guys, how do I get this thing off?

Moral of the story, YES you HAVE to take the chain and sprocket off, get a buddy to help you bust the nut loose, get a magnet ready just in case, and most importantly: Don't go down on the left side.

[/IMG]The bent spacer behind the sprocket nut

[/IMG]My case with most of the dirt. Is that little nipple-thing the neutral detector?

[/IMG]One way to keep things organized. Draw them as good as you can, and put the bolts in.

[/IMG]Almost made it off. Still had to break the chain.

[/IMG]Inside my case

[/IMG]Seriously guys, this method works great.

[/IMG]Aww man, gotta find two pegs.

[/IMG]Having trouble getting past these. This is where I'm at right now. Bike is covered and protected to prevent damage from incoming weather.

[/IMG]This is how my night ends.

 

pics aren't working for me, but congrats on getting it done.

 

Aww man....for some reason it won't let me upload photos through here. Put them in my Photobucket account, and linked them here. I'm not done yet, can't get the shift star, or the pressure lever out. Needing help with that right now.

 

Instant lowside as the result of l/h turn @ 35mph on rain slicked clay-can you say 'slick as $hit ???'. Made for an interesting ride back home stuck in 2nd gear. No damage to any other parts.

 

Well I am glad you found the broken parts - two pegs! I have no idea why you cannot get the star off... With the allen bolt removed, I used a screwdriver to pry down on the roller thingy that indexes the star and the cover came off first with a pin indexing it to the star and then the star slipped right off in the same manner and the pin indexing it the shift drum - no prying or force required???
Let us know how it all works out!

GBAUTO:
"Instant lowside" - yup, that describes how I sheared the shift shaft off the engine.
In my case, I think the best protection from having this happen again was to remove the MSR steel shift lever and put the "pretzel prone" stock shift lever back on... I call that an engineered weak link... I also have a stock shift lever from a XR650L and it appear to be equally as weak as the Kawi part but with an additional 3/4" of reach/length. May try that one when I redo my my shifter snakes. The extra length of the Honda application was why I bought the MSR XR650L lever.

TC

 

Yeah, I can't figure it out either. I was able to remove the allen bolt and the piece it connects to directly. After that, nothing is budging and I don't understand it. Everything else came off just fine, nothing else appears to be bent or broken. There's a 10mm nut on the spring lever I can get off, but the washer behind that won't even come off for me. I may have to see about getting a prybar or long big flathead and wrap them in cloth to try and peel it all apart. I just want it all off the engine so I'll know that as soon as my parts arrive I can just throw them on and put her back together.

Anybody think they can help me figure out how to make my pictures work? I would really like to show what I've been seeing and doing.