INTRUDER1500.COM

September 11th, 2001

Never to forgive,
Never to forget!

Fixing The 4th Gear Problem: Another Version

The Problem:
I have an '01 LC which developed a nasty habit of jumping out of 4th gear when the bike was under a heavy load such as being in 4th gear, full throttle and over 3500 RPM. Although it wasn't all that bad at first it finally got to the point that passing a car on the highway meant staying out of 4th gear, either using 3rd or 5th.

Once I passed 20,000 on the odometer it got to the point I could pop the bike out of 4th gear at will. All I needed to do was accelerate even moderately hard in 4th gear and exceed 3500 to 3700 RPM. Under any acceleration, over 4,000 RPM the bike would come out of 4th every time.

There has been a lot of discussion about this on the LC Forum and it appears that this problem exists on some 2000, 2001 and 2002 models. The 1998 and 1999 models do not seem to be afflicted. Some still hold that this problem is caused by the manner of shifting and not a problem with the bike. I contend that is pure bunk. I can ride my brothers 99 LC and it never comes out of 4th and he can ride both mine and his wife's 01 and pop it out of 4th at will. It is a problem with some bikes.

I had done all the recommended things such as lubing the shift linkage raising the rear shifter and shifting by only using the toe shifter. While I thought, for a while, that this was the cure, the problem only got worse. It was about then that I started reading about quite a few other bikes that were having the same problem and included was a list of parts to replace. These parts included:

11482-38B10 Gasket, clutch
25380-10F00 Plate, Gear Shift
25350-24B00 Stopper Comp, G
25355-13E10 Spring, Shift C
09280-35006 O-Ring, ID:35.5

So, I ordered those parts from RonAyers.Com after checking with several places and finding that Ron Ayers was significantly cheaper than any other quote (by about 40%). One day on my way to work I happened to notice a UPS box sitting in the corner of my porch. Have no idea how long it has been there but was happy to see it none-the-less.

Continued...