'97 Techno With Crunchy Gears. Neutral Is A Challenge!

[zebedee]

This thread has probably been up before in one guise or another but I hope more direct advise will help me.

I have a '97 Techno that I purchased at the start of the Summer. Although the bike is in great nick I am plagued by a gearbox problem that is basically this:

Changing between gears is very stiff and finding neutral is a chalange to say the least. It has gotten so bad that sometimes I have to stall the engine. Sit in the bike, hold onto the shifter and rock the bike back and forth wiggling to get the bike out of gear. I change the fluid after every 6 or 7 hours of use and use PJ1 fluid.

My maintenance skills are fairly solid but I have never tackled a 'box before. Does anyone have any advise that may help or know of anyone in the Edinburgh area that can be trusted to do a good job?

Any advise would be appreciated.

[pattonfamily]

I have had a 98 Techno since 2000. I have never been able to hit nuetral while the engine is running. My theory is: there is constant clutch drag that makes shifting to neutral difficult. I've worked around it just fine, no big deal.

However, I did have an issue once with the shifter mechanism. Just inside the left side cover are two fortks that rotate the "bird cage" and shift drum. Both of these forks have a steel pin that in peened in place, and the pins coordinate the function of these two forks. They mount onto the the gear shift shaft that goes through the left engine cover. With age, these pins can become lose/worn and cause shifting issues. In my case, one pin came out completely and shifting was impossible. This might be something to check.

I had my gear box completely apart last year, and I was amazed at how well everything had held up. For the bike to be 7 years old at that point, I expected to see much more wear and/or damage. I ended up putting it all back together and didn't need to replace a single item in the gearbox.

Anyway, I hope this helps.