Clicking but wont turn over

Vessel makes some. You can find them on ebay or if it were me I would be ordering them from chacal. He is on this form.

 

as previously mentioned I'm a cycle noob. I'm assuming this is the shift fork... pretty difficult to get a good view through any of the holes but I didn't see any plastic chunks.

Time to open the valve covers?

 

The shift drum is the round thing with the ratcheting dohickey on it in the left og the pic. There is a hole above it. Look through that.
If you follow the ratcheting dohickey (shifter pawl) to the right where you will see a gear section (the teeth/crown looking things) you will find another hole below it. Look through that too. A good flashlight will help. A lenght of stiff wire can be used as a probe to carefully poke around. You might also want to use a dental mirror to try and look forward toward the crank since that's one place where a bit of th guide can jam inbetween the alternator chain and the sprocket on the crankshaft.

Yes pull the valve cover. You need to check valve shim clearances anyway (but not until the engine can spin freely).

Ordering parts from anyone but Chacal is a gamble since most places don't know the differences between which parts say they fit, and which parts actually fit.

 

Gasket - order from Len at xj4ever
Jis screwdrivers- order from Len at xj4ever

 

I just bought a 3 piece JIS set from Len.

Go Here:
http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/forums/xj4ever-supporting-vendor.23/

He has a few choices, either buying individually of buying the set. I bought the set listed as:

HCP17479 Aftermarket JIS-standards MECHANICS-GRADE SCREWDRIVER SET.

They are beautiful! The pride of my toolbox now.

Great quality... Hard plastic handles with rubberized edges, magnetized tips, chromed shafts with knurled finish where the shaft meets the handle ("grippy" texture like for when you might want to spin the driver between your thumb and pointer finger).

QUALITY!

 

Well it's going to be a couple weeks before I can really get back into working on my bike. I broke my femur yesterday. Should I get the crank and shift covers back on or will they be alright sitting off for a couple weeks? I can get a roommate and instruct him how to do it for me if need be.

Thanks for all your help up to now. I'll let you know when I get this list troubleshooted

 

I'd have your roomie put the covers back on. A broken femur is going to take more than a couple weeks to mend. Don't push yourself or you will bend hardware and maybe need a second surgery. When the doc tells you what to do, you do it...exactly. That is not a minor injury; be thankful that you weren't born 100 years ago.

 

So the ER diagnosed it wrong. Turned out to be a torn ACL and meniscus. I'm 7 weeks post surgery now, I can't ride for another 5-10 weeks but I'm able to jump back into working on my bike. Super grateful that it was "only" my knee and not the femur.

I also moved 2 weeks ago and a huge benefit of that is that my new roommate is a mechanical engineer. He hasn't worked on motorcycles much but he's already got a better handle on this thing than me - and he's very excited to help me get her running again.

He read through this thread and this evening we went back through the checks I already did.

• opened up starter, brushes and everything else in fine condition
• opened valve cover, everything looks fine and clean
• he said the starter solenoid looked fine
• put the wrench back on the crank - I thought it was too hard to turn but I let him have a try - it's rotating freely, I suppose I was too cautious with the regular resistance of turning it over. but he cranked it around several times and everything sounded fine.
• tried to stick a dental mirror in the under the shift cover but the one I bought is too big - I have better lighting in my new garage though and I'm fairly confident there's no pieces of the cam guide in there

so now we're a little stuck. what should be our next step?

 

Did you check the springs on the shift mechanism?

 

no I haven't yet. I assume your referring to the black spring that's visible in the photo I posted before of my crank case?

heading to bed, but he and I will be getting back into it tomorrow evening. Any other things I should add to a list for us to go through?

 

I forgot abotu the photo. The little spring is good. The big spring would need to be looked at, but I think that you might actually have a bent shifting fork

Have you tried to shift it since the inspection? Remember to rotate the rear wheel so the gears can mesh.

 

I have not, I'll do that in a little bit. my goal is to trouble shoot a good bit before he gets back from work.
would I just click it by hand or should I attach the shift lever with the crank cover off? I can get a better picture of it too

 

Putting the lever on with the cover off will let you look at the whole mechanism as it works. Be gentle when shifting since the outer side of the shift lever shaft is not supported without the cover being on.

 

roommate will be back soon to go through some stuff but here are some more clear pics. the big spring seems to be fine

 

Big spring is good.

 

We both got pretty busy the past week, but we just shifted through all the gears up and down several times with no problems.

He and I were talking the issues and now we're wondering if I just hydrolocked the bike and now that the plugs have been out it's no longer locked - as before I couldn't crank it and now I can.

any thoughts on that theory? or what I should do next?

 

I think that is a sound theory. Sniff the oil for gas. If the sump smells of gasoline then you have one or more float needles that aren't sealing.

 

Well I won't be able to give anything a try until I get a new gasket for the shift cover as mine ripped into 3 pieces when took the cover off. I should probably replace the left engine cover gasket too.
I'm more and more convinced nothing has ever been replaced on this bike.

thanks as always for the input

 

New gaskets are a good thing. Better to keep the oil in than rely on 30 year old gaskets to not fail while riding.

 

Yeah I'm sending Chacal a message now, new parts are always nice.

On another note, do you know if I'd be able to run a MAC 4-1 exhaust on this? my manifold is pretty shot, and my pipes are just not the prettiest to look at. the mac systems are the only compatible aftermarket exhaust kits I've come across.