Topic: lost 4th, hard to shift

[jlrichardson]

on my way to work this morning i lost 4th gear on my 1972 cb500. 4th had not been in great shape for a while now, when accelerating it would kind of "pop" out of gear for a second, then go right back in. well today it popped out and never went back in. i could live without 4th gear, but now it has made it almost impossible to shift. inseat of smoothly shifting in and out of gear, i have to force it into gear, and it feels really "mooshy" when i shift. when down shifting it almost operates like normal. i also cannot shift into 5th gear. any advice would be great. thanks!

[aptech77]

Have you tried adjusting the clutch?

[eldar]

If 4th has been an issue for a while, chances are, it is going to be something with the shift forks, maybe the dogs, but hard to say without looking. You might reveal something if you pull off the sidecover for your shifter.

[oldbiker]

You most likely dont want to hear this. If I had a gearbox (transmission) that lost a gear like that, I would not want to ride until I had opened up the cases. Anything broken in the box could cause a lock up at speed with disastrous consequences. Sorry buddy.

[bryanj]

I agree with oldbiker there, 500 dont give that many problems but i have seen gears with the dogs sheared off ond one, only one, with a gear shattered. Always on bikes where the owners admitted to "abusing" the box and all an easy fix--except that the engine has to come out and the bottom case off