whelp I've broken something in my trans or clutch.. RESOLVED!

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

I've been riding my Ambo almost exclusively since I got it back on the road, it's just too good!

Took the v65 cafe out yesterday, man I love this bike too! I was really giving it the stick in the twisties when my great fear happened...  With the reverse shift pattern on the Ambo, I guess I have already started some muscle memory and I DOWNSHIFTED into first instead of upshifting to third while launching out of a tight hairpin turn with heavy throttle....  Revs shot thru the roof, there was a crunching noise, and my shifter was stuck in first gear...  I pulled in the clutch and coasted to the shoulder, prodded and poked with my toe until I was able to pop it up into neutral.

At this point I was able to shift back to first, set off again, and continue on my way.  Now the bike is shifting thru all gears, but I am having an issue where it wants to hang in 1st and stick..  It's not hard to pop it out and shift on up thru the gears, but there is deff trouble in there.  I can feel a vauge crunchyness when shifting into and out of first gear. 

For some reason I believe this is clutch related, but it is only affecting 1st gear, so perhaps I am way off. I say this because I have just adjusted my valves and reset my idle and the bike was running great! But after this incident, I stalled it several times after coming to a stop or trying to set off from a stop...  seems to me is is dragging or not fully disengaging.

If this happened to you, what would be your first thought?

[Wayne Orwig]

Downshifting into first would over rev the clutch plate. Maybe it fractured, and you are now getting clutch drag.

Does it shift OK, relatively speaking, with the motor off?

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

Thanks Wayne, I think we are on the same page here...  I was late for dinner and just ran out for a couple hot laps around the mountain after work...  I came home and parked it. That will be my first check!

[Rolf Halvorsen]

He is talking about his V65.

This clutch and gearbox is very different from the Tonti models.

But - remove the gearbox and check out the clutch first.

The gearbox can not be checked on the bench - you can only check it by revolving the inlet and the outlet axels with different speed - at the same time while changing gears.

[Moparnut72]

Tweaked shifting fork? If the other gears are shifting Ok might not be the clutch. Just a thought.
kk

[malik]

Before getting serious & taking everything apart, have you tried adjusting the clutch cable? Both top & bottom. Must remember it's a smallblock, and difficulty getting into & out of first is usually a clutch adjustment issue.  At least the gearshift return spring doesn't seem to be broken - there's a lot of work to replace a $5 part. Best of luck.

[Old Jock]

He is talking about his V65.

This clutch and gearbox is very different from the Tonti models.

But - remove the gearbox and check out the clutch first.

The gearbox can not be checked on the bench - you can only check it by revolving the inlet and the outlet axels with different speed - at the same time while changing gears.

My Bad Thank You Rolf for putting me right

I'll delete my post

Apologies to Mayor of BBQ

[Muzz]

Tweaked shifting fork? If the other gears are shifting Ok might not be the clutch. Just a thought.
kk

That was my first thought.

[Scout63]

Maybe a broken shift dog?  Or a bent shift fork not running in the shift drum smoothly.  Maybe the drum and it’s shaft getting knocked out of whack?  Please keep us posted and good luck.

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

Thanks for the responses so far, will probably be a week or better until I can investigate further..  I will report anything I can find

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

Well, I have the problem fixed and my goodness what luck.  Thanks to all who responded, you gave me a good list of stuff to check.

The actual issue was so silly, I am glad it was something simple.

My v65 has a nylon tank from a 2010 V7 Classic on it- since it is not OEM, I had to fabricate a bracket for it and sort out a mount bolt. I am using a brass T bushing in the tank's mounting hole, into this T Bush I have pressed an acorn nut-- tight interference fit. Now the mounting bolt screws UP into that nut from the underside.. thru the bracket and into the nut in the mounting hole...  I recently pulled the tank off to adjust my steering bearings.  I am guessing when I placed the tank back on, I reached under and spun the bolt in place, but never actually snugged it fully down.

While I was out on my ride, ripping around and revving the bike like a lunatic, missing shifts and shifting into the wrong gear (thanks ambo upside down shift pattern!)... That massive shudder and CHUNK I caused must have made the mount bolt (with two big fender washers on it) drop out of the tank's mounting hole.  The bolt fell PERFECTLY for the threads to slip under the battery tray and the head (and washers) to wedge on top of the trans. You wouldn't believe it but the bolt was positioned such that the clutch cable was sandwiched between the two washers!  I should have taken a picture, because you wouldnt believe in a million years that a bolt could fall straight down, and perfectly align to catch the cable between two washers with the threads caught under the battery tray and the bolt head wedged tight against the tranny housing!  It was the damndest thing!

So my issue was all along that the cable was hanging up due to the fallen bolt- either not allowing full clutch engagement when pulled, and then once pulled and cronched into gear, it wasn't releasing fully (or releasing extra slowly) once I let the clutch out.  It was catching both ways, but only intermittently in both directions!

 I would not believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes.

[dirtiegirtie]

Wow - Awesome luck!!! Glad you found the simple before tearing the trans apart!

If a screw falls from above a motorcycle engine, it will inevitably find the most obscure location to hide from you.
If a screw falls from below a motorcycle engine, it will fall to the empty ground and shoot 6' in a random direction to hide from you.
I think they do it on purpose.

[John A]

If you tried to get it to do that, it would have been hard to do .  there’s more things to bite you than you can imagine..
And yes, they do it on purpose

[Cam3512]

How did you not take a picture??

Take everything apart and try to recreate it for us…

[cliffrod]

Very cool- great to hear it was a cheap & simple issue.   

Now for the redesign of the tank mounting arrangement....

[Chuck in Indiana]

  

[berniebee]

What a weird thing to happen- but good on you for finding it.

[Dharma Bum]

Time to go buy a lottery ticket!!

[Muzz]

I think you could put that in the "never happen in a thousand years" basket.  I suspect no one would ever come up with that solution.

Pleased it ended up being a cheap and easy fix.

[Scout63]

Great job sussing that out. That will never happen again. 

[Stratodisaster]

I think that’s what we used to call Murphy Law. I’ve had some pretty strange things happen both good and bad.

[bobrebos]

Thats a good job and good luck that the problem was easily fixed!