Not going into gear?

[Arr MiHardies]

I have recently begun having an intermittent problem where my spyder will not allow me to downshift from neutral to first gear. It mainly occurs in stop and go traffic, and is darn near impossible to reproduce. Normally, its not a huge problem, as usually just letting go of the clutch and pulling it back down will allow me to downshift again. But today it happened in second gear, not allowing me to shift into neutral. I push down on the gear shifter, and nothing happens. Letting go of the clutch killed the engine. Then the spyder didnt want to start for a minute, displaying, among other things, the low voltage light. Battery shouldnt have been that low. It was fully charged as of this morning (been on the tender), and had only been in stop and go traffic maybe 10 minutes.

Any ideas?

 

[CyncySpyder]

Hows your oil level? :hun:​

 

[Arr MiHardies]

I'll check it next time i warm it up. Should be good though.

 

[boborgera]

My 08 did that at times, If i just ease up of on the clutch a little it would drop right into first.
I might be mistaken [My wife thinks I'm misstaken most of the time] but somewhere deep in the manual that came with the Spyder it mentions it.
A lot of bikes will do that ,It has something to do with the speed of the gears [timing].

 

[Arr MiHardies]

I had our tech take a quick look at it before today's ride. He said the clutch fluid is really dirty. He's going to flush it when I bring it in next week to have my utopia installed.

 

[Questions]

I had our tech take a quick look at it before today's ride. He said the clutch fluid is really dirty. He's going to flush it when I bring it in next week to have my utopia installed.

hi There

Im new on the side. I tried to reply to your post about the issue with the gears on your bike. Please ask the thec to check the o-rings on the shift cylinder on the clutch. there is 2 o-rings on the piston and we had cases before where the o-ring get eaten up from the brakefluid. the dirty fluid is because of the o-rings mixing with the fluid. replacing the fluid will not solve the problem because the cylinder is not moving freely.BRP change the o-rings to a better quality. the old ones was black and the new o-rings is green.
hope you have a smooth ride soon.

best regards

 

[Lamonster]

hi There

Im new on the side. I tried to reply to your post about the issue with the gears on your bike. Please ask the thec to check the o-rings on the shift cylinder on the clutch. there is 2 o-rings on the piston and we had cases before where the o-ring get eaten up from the brakefluid. the dirty fluid is because of the o-rings mixing with the fluid. replacing the fluid will not solve the problem because the cylinder is not moving freely.BRP change the o-rings to a better quality. the old ones was black and the new o-rings is green.
hope you have a smooth ride soon.

best regards

:welcome:
Good info all the way from South Africa :thumbup:

 

[Arr MiHardies]

hi There

Im new on the side. I tried to reply to your post about the issue with the gears on your bike. Please ask the thec to check the o-rings on the shift cylinder on the clutch. there is 2 o-rings on the piston and we had cases before where the o-ring get eaten up from the brakefluid. the dirty fluid is because of the o-rings mixing with the fluid. replacing the fluid will not solve the problem because the cylinder is not moving freely.BRP change the o-rings to a better quality. the old ones was black and the new o-rings is green.
hope you have a smooth ride soon.

best regards

Thanks for the info. I passed it on to my tech and he'll take a look, but doubts its the issue as there are only 5000 miles on my Spyder and I don't live in an environment with a lot of corrosive stuff on the roads like salt and such, but he'll look when he does the flush.

 

[Arr MiHardies]

My tech flushed the clutch fluid and inspected the rings. The rings were fine, and the fluid was very dirty, especially considering I only have 5000 miles. The problem happened again shortly after pick up. I figured out how to reproduce it nearly every time. If a simple change of riding habits with fix it, so be it. If its something mechanical, I need to get it fixed.

To reproduce it, I speed up to about 45 mph and up into 4th gear or so, then I coast to a stop without downshifting by holing in the clutch. I then downshift quickly, trying to get into first gear. If I shift much more slowly, or shift as i decelerate, I don't have the problem. I'm thinking I'm either downshifting too quickly for the gear sensor, or I'm pushing down on the shift again before it has totally reset to its neutral position.

Any comments or suggestions?

 

[spyryder]

My tech flushed the clutch fluid and inspected the rings. The rings were fine, and the fluid was very dirty, especially considering I only have 5000 miles. The problem happened again shortly after pick up. I figured out how to reproduce it nearly every time. If a simple change of riding habits with fix it, so be it. If its something mechanical, I need to get it fixed.

To reproduce it, I speed up to about 45 mph and up into 4th gear or so, then I coast to a stop without downshifting by holing in the clutch. I then downshift quickly, trying to get into first gear. If I shift much more slowly, or shift as i decelerate, I don't have the problem. I'm thinking I'm either downshifting too quickly for the gear sensor, or I'm pushing down on the shift again before it has totally reset to its neutral position.

Any comments or suggestions?

Sounds like there's nothing atall wrong with your clutch or transmission. You should ALWAYS downshift while slowing down and be back in first gear before coming to a complete stop.