Just got this bike. 2012. 5700mi one owner. Stock shift lever.

Shift lever was loose and bent, scraping on the side cover when I test drove the bike but decided to buy it anyway. not much to choose from up here in Alaska.

I straightened the shifter and cleaned the splines and reinstalled the shifter. So it was still sloppy shifting, not real positive, mostly down shifting. I pulled the cover below the forward sprocket and thanks to this forum I kind of knew what to look for. The star looks new, no funny wear patterns on the follower contact area, and the individual pins had zero signs of wear. The shift mechanism also looked ok ...I think. I inspected the points on the grabber claws and I couldn't find anything wrong there. The stopper post had some dings on it and it looked to be very slightly bent to the 1:00 position. So I took a 14mm deep socket to remove it and it was loose, probably not even finger tight! So my concern is the case is bent, but after pulling the post you can see the post is tipped. Will give the new one a good look after I torque it down.



Had red locktite on the threads. I am sure I am the first one in there, so that was a factory install. Going to order up a new post. and hope for the best.

Thanks to this forum my bike is on the road to recovery!

 

That post centers the ratchet pawl for the shift drum. If it's bent, it may prevent the ratchet from engaging on upshift or downshift. If it's bent-replace it.