Hoping someone can shed some light on this.
The engine is out of the bike on a stand and I've only removed the side covers, oil pan, valve cover, etc for cleaning. I had also removed the neutral switch and had difficulty reinstalling it because the "gearshift drum" was inwards too far - I could see a "shoulder on the drum through the hole for the neutral switch that was preventing the switch from seating all the way. I used a screwdriver to pry the drum outwards slightly so that the neutral switch seated properly.
I then put on the shift lever to try the gear changes and found that some gears would not fully engage; the "stopper" would not seat between the "rollers" on the end of the drum. I then noticed that there seems to be a fair amount of backlash in the drive shaft that the sprocket attaches to and that if I put a little rotational pressure on the drive shaft, then the gears would change properly.
It appears to be about 1/2 a spline of backlash on the drive shaft - is this normal (engine has about 35K on it to the best of my knowledge).
I did drive the bike around the block when I bought it before taking it apart and never noticed any issue with gear changes at the time.
Any help or information would be appreciated, thanks.
