Topic: Shifty Question

[Vintageguy]

I have a 1978 CB750F and love it, but have a gearbox question. My bike runs and shifts well, and does not have any bad habits under power, aside from one. At times it is difficult to get into neutral, and does have the "false neutral" around second gear I see described in this Forum from time to time. What is going on here, and would a change of heavier (20-50) oil be helpful? I currently am running fresh Valvolene synthetic 10-40 for bikes. 9,000 miles total and not abused as far as I can tell. Thank you for any and all responses.

[69cb750]

Neutral is easier to find if bike is rolling.
It can be done at stop but takes more practice.

[jonda500]

reducing the freeplay in the clutch cable can help if not eliminate this issue
John

[HondaMan]

Ah. The main words here are: "Valvoline" and "synthetic". That stuff made my trusty 750 so hard to shift (in 10 miles!) that I changed the oil out a day later to fix it.

I strongly recommend the Bel-Ray 20w50 EXL Mineral Oil today, as it is as close the the unique Castrol XLR 20w%0 that was developed for this engine as we can get today. If you want to go synthetic, look to the Golden Spectro (NOT the V-Twin oil) in 20w50 wiehgt.

And yes, the 10w40 is also causing some of your troubles. NEVER use that in these bikes: the recommendation in the errant-ly translated 1974 and later manuals intended to convey that you should '...NEVER USE LESS THAN 10w40 oil..." in these engines, and 20w50 was (and still is) the normal summertime oil for them. There was an error in the translation from Jinglish to American that caused this screwup, and all of us who rode them at the time knew that was just wrong.

[Vintageguy]

Wanted to update on this topic. As suggested I located (after considerable searching) BelRay mineral-based 20-50 oil to replace the 10-40 I had in before. What a difference in the way this shifts!!! No longer snaps or grinds into 1st gear from stop, and false neutral is greatly reduced, if not totally eliminated. Thank you, HondaMan.

[HondaMan]

Wanted to update on this topic. As suggested I located (after considerable searching) BelRay mineral-based 20-50 oil to replace the 10-40 I had in before. What a difference in the way this shifts!!! No longer snaps or grinds into 1st gear from stop, and false neutral is greatly reduced, if not totally eliminated. Thank you, HondaMan.

I love it when a plan comes together.

[Medyo Bastos]

Ok, Hannibal


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[HondaMan]

Ok, Hannibal