Thats an older bike, how about it being a chain issue?

 

The noise and resistance happens with the chain off (or on).

 

Your post is a little confusing. Are you saying that you're looking into this because your bike running, in neutral, makes a clunking sound? Or are you saying that you only experience this with manually turning the engine sprocket? If you have your chain on and spin the rear wheel in neutral, do you experience the same sensation of drag?

My throw the cards in the air guess is you have a bad bearing(s) somewhere.

It could also be a bent or worn shift fork allowing the gear to partially engage the gear it's next to.

 

Didn't mean for any confusion. This what happens when the bike is not running and in neutral. It happens (not running) when you push the bike, set it on its center stand and spin the wheel and also with the chain removed and the sprocket is being spun.
I agree, it sounds like a bad bearing or a worn or bent shift fork.

Now, is there a fix for this without removing the engine or does the engine have to come out to fix the bearing?

I realize the engine has to be removed from the frame to fix the shift fork.

 

So the bike doesn't make any sounds when running? No clunking or clanking? In neutral, no issues or sounds? Up/down shifts through all gears no problems? Stays in gear all gears, no problem, under heavy acceleration and ALL conditions? You only experience this when the bikes off and you are manually turning it in neutral? Any clutch issues?

When did you first notice this? Is it different than what you've experienced before?

Is it possible for you to record a video so we can see and hear what you're talking about?

What happens if you disengage the clutch? (use something like double sided velcro to strap the lever). Whens the last time you adjusted/checked your clutch lever free play? Clutch cable inspection/lube?

I don't own a ZR7 so I'm not sure about servicing the bearings without splitting the case. I downloaded a service manual, I spent a few minutes looking it does not appear to me the transmission bearings are servicable without splitting, but I am not certain of this at all and only had a couple minutes to look at it. It looks like a couple bearings might be, but it didn't appear the transmissions were. I'm sure someone here can answer these questions with 100% certainty.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. It appears I will have to remove the engine to replace the bearing(s) as well as the shift forks if needed. I will keep this forum informed of what I discover. Just got to get motivated to yank the motor.

 

To update everyone on what the transmission clunking noise was I pulled the engine and split the cases. First gear was broken into five
plus pieces. A new transmission is being installed and the cases are being put back together.

 

LOL well I was sort of right about the partially engaging thing...

Any idea what happened? Have you formed any opinions of the gear breaking? Looks like something got wedged between the gears and crushed it inward, where the teeth are broken.

 

Actually that's the way I got the bike. So, no I really do not know what could have happened. Maybe the gear was structurally weak to begin with and at one point broke. The other gears are in decent shape except for a few nicks from the broken gear bits that were floating around.

 

Bloody hell! You have to offer a sacrifice to your guardian angel, that could have gone bad very fast.....

You must be living right!

Cheers!

 

Unless that gear was cracked, or poorly machined from the factory, I'd say abuse was it's cause. Dropping the clutch, (burnouts, wheelies, etc.) would/do put ALOT of strain on the gear, chain and the counter-sprocket, and I believe the first gear sprocket would be the weak point between the 3. Just an educated guess.

 

Maybe a bump in run? I know that can foul up a transmission pretty well.

 

That is pretty spectacular to find! Looks like you confidently isolated the trouble correctly. Nice work.

I've had one dog of a slider gear snap off on a CB-400F back in the day. Made a loud clack sound when it happened, so I knew something went wrong. It occurred during a down shift.

 

Actually, this is my first attempt at splitting the cases on a motorcycle. It's been a real learning experience for me and I am glad that it has gone well up to this point. I'm anxious to get the bike up and running as there are several other bikes waiting to get worked on.

 

Well you've certainly dived in the deep end! Most of us started from the top down!

The good thing is stuff gets lighter from here on!

Anil

 

Wow, that's a big project! Kudos to you for tackling it. Would love to see some pics.

Where'd you get a new transmission to put in it?

 

A used transmission was found on Ebay. It was in excellent shape and not very much money. I will post some pics when I get it up and running.

 

hi,,,

I own a 2006 Ninja 500R lime green with love. Her name's LeLu btw. But i've been having very concerned problems with my transmission. I'd like to post some of the symptoms and what i've done to try to fix it (other than taking into the shop *oh no!*) I've had these symptoms for about three months now. I ride my bike everyday to/from work as it is my primary mode of transportation. In 10mo i've put 5k miles on it.

Symptoms:

Clunking from neutral down to first all the way up to sixth. I've found that while shifting up to sixth while my rpm is hovering around 5k rpm it shifts a little more smoothly. But that is not necessairly the case. On somedays it seems to be workikng fine and on other days its a terrible cla-thunk cla-thunk sound or a teeth gritty grinding sound.

Shifting also seems worse on lower gears.

When I shut the engine off it makes a terrible clunk sound and the bike has a small jolt (like something is turning over inside the engine that's heavy).

My throttle is spongy. It is on and off and I havent isolated the reason. It seems like it could be depending on my accelleration (higher rpm) or when there is more gas in the tank. Btw. when the tank is full it seems to work better than when it is below 1/2 full.

My oil light wont go off (even though I just replaced the oil and filter last week). And when I replaced the oil my transmission seemed to 'work' well half the time (no clunking or grinding) and then after a week it went back to being miserablly grindy and clunky.

What i've done:

*Replaced both oil filter and oil.
*Tightened and loosened my clutch.
*Clean chain, internal and external gear-sprocket- thingy(haha).
*I've read in another forum that there might have been air trapped in when i replaced my oil filter so it advised loosing my oil filter 1/2 spin and turn on the motorcycle. The only thing that came out was a little oil and light stayed on.

As of yet i've not found a 2006 ninja 500r manual but i've found 1986-2002. There is supposed to be one on the kawi cite but the web address says they dont have any in stock. Any link to said manual would be helpful. I wana teach myself and learn more about moto. maintance but its rather difficult w/o aid.


PREVENTATIVE VEHICLE MAINTENANCE

 

hi,,,

I own a 2006 Ninja 500R lime green with love. Her name's LeLu btw. But i've been having very concerned problems with my transmission. I'd like to post some of the symptoms and what i've done to try to fix it (other than taking into the shop *oh no!*) I've had these symptoms for about three months now. I ride my bike everyday to/from work as it is my primary mode of transportation. In 10mo i've put 5k miles on it.

Symptoms:

Clunking from neutral down to first all the way up to sixth. I've found that while shifting up to sixth while my rpm is hovering around 5k rpm it shifts a little more smoothly. But that is not necessairly the case. On somedays it seems to be workikng fine and on other days its a terrible cla-thunk cla-thunk sound or a teeth gritty grinding sound.

Shifting also seems worse on lower gears.

When I shut the engine off it makes a terrible clunk sound and the bike has a small jolt (like something is turning over inside the engine that's heavy).

My throttle is spongy. It is on and off and I havent isolated the reason. It seems like it could be depending on my accelleration (higher rpm) or when there is more gas in the tank. Btw. when the tank is full it seems to work better than when it is below 1/2 full.

My oil light wont go off (even though I just replaced the oil and filter last week). And when I replaced the oil my transmission seemed to 'work' well half the time (no clunking or grinding) and then after a week it went back to being miserablly grindy and clunky.

What i've done:

*Replaced both oil filter and oil.
*Tightened and loosened my clutch.
*Clean chain, internal and external gear-sprocket- thingy(haha).
*I've read in another forum that there might have been air trapped in when i replaced my oil filter so it advised loosing my oil filter 1/2 spin and turn on the motorcycle. The only thing that came out was a little oil and light stayed on.

As of yet i've not found a 2006 ninja 500r manual but i've found 1986-2002. There is supposed to be one on the kawi cite but the web address says they dont have any in stock. Any link to said manual would be helpful. I wana teach myself and learn more about moto. maintance but its rather difficult w/o aid.

If it's getting worse and you're still riding it don't expect it to get better or go away. Best case scenario is it gets worse until it just stops (aka the bike will just no longer start / run). Worst case it you have a catastrophic failure while riding it and wipe out. Have the thing looked at by someone with some knowledge, and soon. It may be a broken part, bad oil pump, plugged pickup etc. Any bits floating about in the oil / engine are only going to do more damage. Ignoring it or wishing it wasn't so is not going to help.

 

You mentioned you tightened the chain.. did you check if the cush drive rubbers are OK?

These are pieces of rubber which live in the hub and dampen the shock of the bike going in gear. You can check by getting the bike on its mainstand, put it in gear (engine off) and moving the wheel back and forth. If there is a lot of play between rear sprocket relative to the wheel then the cush drive is shot.

Anilv

 

I need help from the members of this site to help solve my current problem with my 2001 ZR-7S. Here is an update on my broken gear box and the new current problem.
As you recall, when I removed the engine and split the cases, first gear was broken in several pieces (all broken pieces with located and removed). A used but very good transmission was purchased and installed. At this time I checked the shifting of the bike and I could shift it in the different gears just like new. At that point, the engine case half was bolted back on and the engine was re-installed in the frame. Now after re-assembling all the parts, coils, carbs, exhaust system and side covers, the bike stays in neutral. I cannot shift the bike out of neutral. The inside of the side cover is very clean. So dirt and grime are not an issue. I have tried moving the shift lever up and down but it will not go in gear. The clutch appears to be in good shape and hopefully adjusted properly.
Does anyone have any idea why it will not go in gear?

 

Does the shifter move up and down? Is there any resistance? My guess is somewhere either something's not assembled properly or the shift drum is binding. I would start with the shift drum and try to manually actuate shifting from that side. If you can put it in/out of gear from there, you know it's somewhere between the shifter and there, or internal.

 

The shift lever will move up and down. It will not engage in any gear.

 

I removed the clutch hub today and got access to the shift drum. The cam-change drum (star shaped) would move clock-wise one notch. Not any further. That's as far as I got without applying pressure.

 

I'm going to guess it's something not together correctly in that area. The shift drum is what controls the shift forks which move the gears along the shalfts changing gear. The ratchet system ratchets up and down, just as you actuate with the shifter. When shift and you hear the clicking, that's the ratcheting, not the gears or whatever. The person who broke your bikes gears probably heard something like that but it was the gears.

You should be able to actuate your shifter and be hearing and seeing that ratchet system click and the shift drum move.

You should be able to apply the amount of force you'd apply through the shifter. I'd guess somewhere around 5-10 ft lbs (which is not much force) is about what you exert on the shift rod with mechanical advantage. Look at 7-4 in the service manual (or there abouts) and there's a diagram of that area.

At the spot your looking at, the problem exist on one side of that spot or the other.

 

Thank you. Should I be able to turn the shift drum (by hand) more than one click?

 

With the bike not running you'll only be able to get N & 1st gear anyways as I recall.