Hello all,
So here's my problem. When my bike is well warmed up and I come to a stop I cannot shift up from first into neutral or 2nd gear and I have no good idea as to what's going on. At first I didn't really care but as I actually ride more I've decided that this blows.
My bike: recent top end rebuild, fresh oil (Rotella T 15w-30), and a bunch of other stuff that doesn't matter here. I had the clutch apart about 600 miles ago and it looked OK. All the clutch plates were pretty much the same thickness. Lacking a caliper at the time, I stacked up the friction plates and measured with a nice precise Starret combination square. Doing some simple addition based math, it appeared that I had about half of my clutch life left. Since the bike had been sitting for about 15 years before this summer there was some glazing on the plates so i scuffed them up and put things back together. (I measured after cleaning and scuffing up the friction plates.)
Overall the bike is running great. It starts easily, runs well, pulls strong, and is super fun. When I start it I let it warm up for a goodly few minutes, hop on and hit the road. It shifts very smoothly up and down the gears and I can easily hit neutral coasting to a stop or once at a stop can effortlessly pop it up into neutral from 1st.
The problem starts 10-15 minutes into a ride, sooner if I get up into the revs early in the ride. Down shifting becomes progressively harder the lower the gear. Sometimes I have to kinda stomp on the shifter to get it into 1st. Neutral is all but gone on the downshift (the only real evidence that I even have a neutral is the quick flash of the neutral light when going from 2nd to 1st). When I come to a stop I cannot pop out of first into neutral. Occasionally I can get it to go into second but with MUCH more effort than seems necessary. When this happens I can only jump between first and second and never really land it in neutral. [Angry smily face here.] One day last week it seemed that I could feather the clutch near the fully engaged position and I could feel my way into neutral. I think that was a fluke and I was riding the bike rather tamely.
This is only a problem when the bike is running. Shut it off and it clicks into neutral no problem (that's good cause up until this evening I was kickstart only and I'm still a pretty new rider and stall it occasionally trying to pull away from a stoplight). Also this is only a problem while at a stop. When I start going again it shifts up just fine but not as smoothly as early in the ride and I still can't find neutral.
I saw a Hondaman post saying that the 750 clutch can be made to function more smoothly by drilling some more oil passage holes into the clutch basket. Can this help the 550 too? Does this sound like an oil pressure thing? I replaced the o-rings on my oil pump and have inspected and cleaned the pick-up screen under the oil pan. Also new oil filter about 300 miles ago.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Etc and thank you.
