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Transmission strangeness


xor_bot

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The behaviour of my transmission has changed, and not for the better. I bought my MT-07 about a month ago, it's a 2014 model with 15000km on the clock. The only transmission related issue I had with it is that sometimes, when stopping and putting the bike in 1st gear, the gear indicator on the display would be blank. When I let the clutch lever out a little to the start of the "friction zone", the gear indicator comes back.

Then some days ago I went for a ride, during which I accidentally shifted from 3rd to 2nd without using the clutch. I closed the throttle, somehow forgot to pull the clutch lever, and shifted down. Nothing went wrong and it slipped into 2nd easily. The rest of the ride went fine, until I had to do an emergency stop. After this stop, I'm having trouble going from 2nd to 3rd. I often have to "double tap" the shifter to get it in gear. And it depends on the engine RPM. At low RPM it's more of an issue that higher RPM. And also the gear indicator now has more issues. Sometimes the gear number is flashing, sometimes it's blank. Sometimes when I stop I'll think I'm in first, but the gear indicator is blank, and when releasing the clutch it suddenly updates and I see I'm in second. Or I'm stopping and expecting to be in 1st, but then I'm actually in neutral. I'm a brand new rider and this unpredictability is really distracting.

Does anyone have a clue what this could be?

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Eastern Kayaker

It sounds like you have a dirty neutral switch assembly sensor, which causes the gear indicator to malfunction. This sensor just needs to be cleaned off to solve the gear indicator problem. The Neutral switch assembly sensor is located behind the front sprocket cover and is an easy task to clean off. Do a search on the forum for a “dirty neutral switch” to see how to clean it off. I know several members posted info on how to do this procedure. 

Here is a picture that a member posted on the forum that shows the location of the part.

BBB84901-9C91-4D3D-B7E1-F85B76AB2E27.jpeg

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22 hours ago, Eastern Kayaker said:

It sounds like you have a dirty neutral switch assembly sensor, which causes the gear indicator to malfunction. This sensor just needs to be cleaned off to solve the gear indicator problem. The Neutral switch assembly sensor is located behind the front sprocket cover and is an easy task to clean off. Do a search on the forum for a “dirty neutral switch” to see how to clean it off. I know several members posted info on how to do this procedure. 

Here is a picture that a member posted on the forum that shows the location of the part.

BBB84901-9C91-4D3D-B7E1-F85B76AB2E27.jpeg

This does sound like an explanation for the gear indicator behaving oddly, but do you have any ideas about the issue where I have to double-tap the shifter to go from 2nd to 3rd gear? I'm considering opening her up and taking a look at the shifting shaft assembly... but that's a pretty significant job as it involves an oil draining (as far as I can tell).

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Before you open her up, maybe get a copy of the service manual and do a quick check if the shifting arm / rod geometry is within specification. Chapter 4, Page 106
I've heard that they (Yamaha) have improved the gear indication sensor thing after those problems appeared. Cleaning sometimes works for only a short time. On my 2014 bike  with nearly 30.000 it still works without problems.

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17 minutes ago, ElGonzales said:

Before you open her up, maybe get a copy of the service manual and do a quick check if the shifting arm / rod geometry is within specification. Chapter 4, Page 106
I've heard that they (Yamaha) have improved the gear indication sensor thing after those problems appeared. Cleaning sometimes works for only a short time. On my 2014 bike  with nearly 30.000 it still works without problems.

Thanks for pointing that out. And even giving a page reference - that's awesome. I did check the service manual, but looked more at the internals of the transmission and didn't see the section on the shifting rod.

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Eastern Kayaker

I see that you mention you are a new rider. With regard to your upshifting issue from 2nd to 3rd gear, a good technique for smooth up shifts is to preload the shifter just before you upshift. This preloading the shifter, is using your shift foot to put slight upward pressure on it to take out any slack in the shifter just before you actually upshift. Another thing you can do if needed, is to adjust the shifter slightly higher or lower to make it fit your boot and put it at a better angle for shifting. There is only a small amount of adjustment up or down, so keep that in mind. I believe the owners manual may have details on how to adjust the shifter, if not check the forum or google it. You also mentioned about a time you downshifted from 3rd to 2nd gear without using the clutch. There is a technique called “clutchless shifting”, I suspect you did this without knowing it for your downshift. Let us know if any of this helped.

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A lot of bikes will start to shift poorly when the oil is getting worn out. Old oil on a hot day can make it even worse. How close are you til time to change the oil? 

 

Fwiw, these bikes shift just fine, but they aren't the smoothness gearbox I ever rode. It took several thousand miles before my bike started to shift well. It's still kinda klunky. 

Edited by shinyribs
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On 8/15/2020 at 12:46 AM, Eastern Kayaker said:

I see that you mention you are a new rider. With regard to your upshifting issue from 2nd to 3rd gear, a good technique for smooth up shifts is to preload the shifter just before you upshift. This preloading the shifter, is using your shift foot to put slight upward pressure on it to take out any slack in the shifter just before you actually upshift. Another thing you can do if needed, is to adjust the shifter slightly higher or lower to make it fit your boot and put it at a better angle for shifting. There is only a small amount of adjustment up or down, so keep that in mind. I believe the owners manual may have details on how to adjust the shifter, if not check the forum or google it. You also mentioned about a time you downshifted from 3rd to 2nd gear without using the clutch. There is a technique called “clutchless shifting”, I suspect you did this without knowing it for your downshift. Let us know if any of this helped.

Thanks, I'll be sure to try the shifter preload technique once I get to ride again.

On 8/14/2020 at 3:43 PM, ElGonzales said:

Before you open her up, maybe get a copy of the service manual and do a quick check if the shifting arm / rod geometry is within specification. Chapter 4, Page 106
I've heard that they (Yamaha) have improved the gear indication sensor thing after those problems appeared. Cleaning sometimes works for only a short time. On my 2014 bike  with nearly 30.000 it still works without problems.

Yes, the shift rod length was out of spec. And the sensor was pretty dirty. Unfortunately I messed up my brake bleeding, so haven't been able to take a test ride again.

On 8/15/2020 at 1:44 AM, shinyribs said:

A lot of bikes will start to shift poorly when the oil is getting worn out. Old oil on a hot day can make it even worse. How close are you til time to change the oil? 

 

Fwiw, these bikes shift just fine, but they aren't the smoothness gearbox I ever rode. It took several thousand miles before my bike started to shift well. It's still kinda klunky. 

It's only been about 500km since the last oil change, so that's probably not it.

 

Thanks for all the advice! I'll give you guys some feedback once I've taken her for a ride again.

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1 hour ago, xor_bot said:

Thanks, I'll be sure to try the shifter preload technique once I get to ride again.

Yes, the shift rod length was out of spec. And the sensor was pretty dirty. Unfortunately I messed up my brake bleeding, so haven't been able to take a test ride again.

It's only been about 500km since the last oil change, so that's probably not it.

 

Thanks for all the advice! I'll give you guys some feedback once I've taken her for a ride again.

Relax and get comfortable with it. After some miles and familiarization much of the frivolous stuff will clear itself up and/or go unnoticed. Then get back to us with tales of exploration, dare do and mods. 👍

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Feedback. I went for a ride today and things are back to normal after cleaning the gear position sensor and adjusting the shift rod back to spec. Thanks for all the input. I'm slowly learning to trust the machine...

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One thing I just wanted to add to this being a new rider and I had what I feel was a similar experience with not being able to hit 3rd from 2nd. What I discovered is that sometimes I was shifting into 2nd but not dropping my toe enough so that when I went to grab 3rd I assume the shifter mechanism hadn't been able to "ratchet" into position properly so I would pull multiple times before actually getting it to work.

As I started to observe when I was having the issue with 3rd, such as noticing that when I stayed in second for long enough that I moved my foot back to rest on the peg, then going for 3rd, it was never was a problem, I started to understand what I was doing. Now if I make a deliberate shift including a firm pull up to get into gear and then tilt my foot down fully, shifts are never an issue.

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