No More Clunky Gear Box!

[Scorphonic]

As I said before which I'd be very happy if some of you guys could try out and let me know how your bikes react:

When starting the engine, hold in the clutch. Keep the clutch held in for a few seconds, maybe reverse the bike out of the parking spot in reverse or forward for a short distance and then without releasing the clutch put it into 1st gear. Guaranteed you'll find that 9 times out of 10 the bike WONT clunk at all!! I've been doing this for a few months now and the bike tends to be smoother on the off...additionally I no longer get a second gear to first gear clunk. Its got to be all in the handling of the clutch, engine speed and the speed at which you push down on the gear selector.

All I know is that its possible to get rid of this clunking, you just have to learn about your bike and figure out the way to reduce/stop this noise.

 

[GConn]

^if your fz does not give you the clunk noise, your bike is not normal. You should have it checked out:Flip:

 

[Gilo-FZ6]

ive got minimal clunkage upshifting and havent done an oil change yet..bikes only done only 560 miles,but force of habit (rightly or wrongly) i blip the revs between down shifts..not a leary blast but a 1-2k blip and ive never suffered a bad downshift since ive had the bike also the intial jerk of the engine brake as you let the clutch out is soooo much smoother ..on the other hand my mate had a go of my bike without using my "method" and it sounded like he left half the gearbox down the road so weather it be oil,lube or the cheeky blip,i guess theres more than one way to skin a cat

 

[Wolfman]

I have found with my bike, that good oil, and a decent set of rearsets, with tighter machining tolerances than the OEM rearsets made things a lot smoother....but by 15000km's, the gearbox is much sweeter anyway, just needs time to bed itself in i reckon.

:thumbup:

 

[alanrim]

Only other Yam I have owned is an SR500 and that gearbox gave exactly the same clunk.

All the Suzuki and Honda I have owned have always been relatively smooth.

Guess it is a Yam thing

 

[Dr.Volts]

I thought my FZ6 transmission was clunky until I got my BMW R-90/6. You would think somebody dropped a bowling ball inside the transmission when you shift the BMW.

All Yamahas are not clunky. My '74 TX-500A is very smooth. I wish my FZ6 had the TX transmission. But as long as the clunks don't indicate a reliability problem, I don't worry about it.

 

[Fz6Sa]

Now I don't have any engineering background or mechanical knowledge to speculate about this BUT:

Could this be a break-in related issue?
What I'm speculating, is that if you somehow mistreat the gearbox (lightly) in the beginning of the bikes life, this will result in more or less tendency to clunck?
This would also explain why some members have it between 1 and 2, and some between 2 and 3 .......

 

[mattheww1]

am i right in thinking the engine oil and gearbox oil is completely seperate? thought they would be two different types of oils and running at different temperatures?

if so can anyone tell me how you would check the gear box oil?


thanks

 

[brad81987]

am i right in thinking the engine oil and gearbox oil is completely seperate? thought they would be two different types of oils and running at different temperatures?

if so can anyone tell me how you would check the gear box oil?


thanks

No. The engine and gear box use the same oil. That is why it's important to run good oil because it has to lubricate the engine and transmission. The gears in transmission cause significant shearing of the oil, something the doesn't happen when you're lubing just the engine, as in a car. The shearing causes the oil to break down faster which is why you have to make sure to change your oil and filter often. The clutch is also in contact with the oil (which is why it's called a wet clutch) which is why you must avoid oil with friction modifiers (energy conserving) as it will cause the clutch to slip.