Gearbox problem

[craigjbrown]

Hi guys this is what's happened,
Riding to work Sunday down the motorway no problems, come of the motorway  ride about the town changing gear fine, stop at the shop, jump back on went to change into second pull away again and nothing, glanced down and notice the bike in natural, pulled the clutch in shifted up and grind clunk bang you name it, released the clutch and tried again and the same by that point I was at my work, so stopped and went into first gear with a louder than normal clunk. I wasn't thrashing it the revs were at 5000rpm and the clutch was used to change gear,
So anyway turned back around and went out for another ride this time second gear changed with a small grind but went in, stopped again pulled of and seemed to be ok, what I did notice is if I change gear without the clutch it's really smith with no clunks however if I use it it horrible, has any body expericend this before, the rest of the gears are fine, it's done 23000 miles still on the original clutch, last oil change was done 3000 miles ago with castrol 10 40 fully synthetic
Cheers

[Burchy]

As I understand it you tried to get into 2nd from stationary?  Kawasakis won't/shouldn't do this.  They have a positive neutral finder that only allows 1st and neutral when stopped

If it does go in, there is a 'box fault

[craigjbrown]

No i pulled off in first, it was changing from first to second, sorry when I come to explaining things I leave a lot of detail out

[Burchy]

If it changes well without the clutch, then it seems to me that that;'s where the problem lies.  Try the easy stuff first and bleed the clutch system.  Sounds as if there may be some air in there stopping the clutch from fully disengaging

[Boomer]

Yeah, clutch master cylinder needs a clean.
The tiny return hole is blocked.

[craigjbrown]

Thanks for the advice guys, at the moment the clutch is out getting inspected,more for piece of mind because we're traveling to Germany later this year so just measuring the friction plates to see if there still good, once it's built back up I'll replace the oil and bleed the clutch to see if that helps

[UncleBigBad]

last oil change was done 3000 miles ago with castrol 10 40 fully synthetic

I thought the GTR needed SEMI synthetic ? Fully synth being renowned for contributing to clutch slippage ?
Happy to be corrected, but could the wrong oil be at fault maybe ?

Just a thought.....

[virginiajim]

I've been running full synthetic since about 5000 miles.  It has 70,000 now.  No issues.

[Charlie farley]

The oil you put in is down to 2 things how deep are your pockets and avoiding long life oil with anti friction additives , motorcycle specific oils don't have additives that make it extra slippy (simply put ) it can get very complex  I've run my bikes on oil rated for diesel engines for 30 years with no problems .

[virginiajim]

I use only MC spec'd oils.   If I had a diesel engine I would put diesel spec'd oil in it.  For some insane reason I go with what the manufacturer recommends.  I know that's bonkers but it's what I do.  Never ever use additives of any sort either.  If I were to buy a used bike, my first question is what oil do you use and if it isn't spec'd MC, I'm going to pass on it, but then I'm bonkers.

[snowy]

 

I use only MC spec'd oils.   If I had a diesel engine I would put diesel spec'd oil in it.  For some insane reason I go with what the manufacturer recommends.  I know that's bonkers but it's what I do.  Never ever use additives of any sort either.  If I were to buy a used bike, my first question is what oil do you use and if it isn't spec'd MC, I'm going to pass on it, but then I'm bonkers.

As long as it matches the required manufacturers spec, I'll use anything, especially as I'm old school with me bikes, 6,000 miles or 6 months for an oil change and annual filter swap. If a big tour is approaching, I'll use fully synth as it'll be working that much harder 2 up and luggage.
Me Audi Tdi, the only difference between standard (10,000 miles) and long life (20,000) service is just down to the oil, I play it by the book and hopefully never suffer wear or failure! 140,000 miles and still as sweet as a nut!

[Charlie farley]

As long as it matches the required manufacturers spec, I'll use anything, especially as I'm old school with me bikes, 6,000 miles or 6 months for an oil change and annual filter swap. If a big tour is approaching, I'll use fully synth as it'll be working that much harder 2 up and luggage.
Me Audi Tdi, the only difference between standard (10,000 miles) and long life (20,000) service is just down to the oil, I play it by the book and hopefully never suffer wear or failure! 140,000 miles and still as sweet as a nut!

a man after my own heart if it meets the spec pour it in .

[O.C.]

I used to put Synthetic oils in my ZX9Rs years ago, because it was 'the cool thing to do', it didnt make them any better or faster, and was probably about bragging rights at the time    

Nowadays I've come to the conclusion that manufacturer recommendations are the best option so I follow that advice.

Oils have improved dramatically over the last 20 years or so, the question of "which oil should I use" has cropped up so many times in connection with Kawasaki Triples on the Triples forum, basically most guys on there use the cheapest supermarket product that they can buy, providing it meets required specification of course.   

[craigjbrown]

Well here's an update,
Dimanteld clutch and to my surprise the friction plates are still like new, quite surprised since they're the original and it's done 22000 miles, however the two outer plates had a few hot spots on them, but the clutch isn't juddering so left them for the time being, built it all back up with fresh oil and bled the clutch and all seems smooth, I'm hoping it was rider error what caused the problem rather than mechanical