SuzukiSavage.com - frozen shifter

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frozen shifter
04/30/11 at 14:01:51

The bike is a 1998 and it's a friends bike (she knows nothing about bikes as this is her first one NOTE: She bought it online and has never previously ridden it). Was taken to an under the table mechanic for a tune up, new tires, and a new battery. It came back unable to shift and was very hard to roll. Just like the title the shifter is frozen and I haven't had the time to go over there and take it apart to see what's wrong. I've never worked on a Savage before but I have worked on several other bikes. She's pretty much told me that she has a very limited budget and if it's going to cost more than $100 than she'll just sell the bike and try to recuperate some of the money back. I need some insight as to what it could be where to start looking and worse case scenario because I really DO NOT want to invest my time into disassembling it if she's going to get rid of it. Any Help would be appreciated.

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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28884 L.A. California Gender:	Re: frozen shifter Reply #1 - 04/30/11 at 15:46:25 Try to find out exactly what was done and not meant to done. owners manual Shop Manuals clymer errors pictures are good Quote: It came back unable to shift and was very hard to roll. My 1st guess is that he adjusted the clutch too tight, the book says .1" gap, I like twice as much.
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cootersandwich YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 16	Re: frozen shifter Reply #2 - 04/30/11 at 16:51:28 I dunno who the guy was that she took her bike to but he sounds like a real winner, seeing as tho she had to threaten to sue him to get her bike back. lol I don't think that guy is going to help her out any. As for the pictures, I'll see what I can do. I have a copy of the manual downloaded to my laptop.
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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28884 L.A. California Gender:	Re: frozen shifter Reply #3 - 04/30/11 at 16:56:37 where you at? maybe someones close enough to help.
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cootersandwich YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 16	Re: frozen shifter Reply #4 - 04/30/11 at 17:17:11 Both of us live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: frozen shifter Reply #5 - 04/30/11 at 17:44:47 Id step back from my treasonous no good motorcycle & berate it thusly.. "Why YOu NO GOOOD, Low Down SHIFTLESS Skunk" for an intro, you can ad lib after that. I remember what my Grampa used to say while he was plowing & the wind was bouncing the sand off his ears hard enough I could hear it over the exhaust on the tractor..
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: frozen shifter Reply #6 - 04/30/11 at 17:46:18 Ohh, rock the bike ( hands off the clutch) while you work the shifter up & down..
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WD

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Re: frozen shifter
Reply #7 - 05/03/11 at 21:27:00

Late answer, but...

It takes absolutely NO effort to bend the shift linkage in towards the engine case. As soon as the linkage goes U-shaped, the shifter is "frozen".

I snapped the stock pot metal shift linkage years ago, replaced it with a Datsun truck battery J-bolt cut to the right length, screwed into one rod end, welded into the other. Even a steel linkage will bend and lock everything up.

So, check the linkage, loosen up the clutch cable at the lever and see what happens. And check the oil level, overfilling will bind them up pretty good. If you see oil in the window with the bike on the kick stand it is overfilled.

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Arnold Serious Thumper Offline The dude abides... Posts: 896 Westchester, NY Gender:	Re: frozen shifter Reply #8 - 05/04/11 at 07:26:32 If it's hard to push, maybe it is stuck in 5th, you may have to push it quite a bit while you try to shift down to 4th and keep going until you find neutral.
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babyhog Serious Thumper Offline Find a Cure for Breast Cancer! NOW!! Posts: 3802 WV Gender:	Re: frozen shifter Reply #9 - 05/04/11 at 16:36:21 WD wrote on 05/03/11 at 21:27:00: .... If you see oil in the window with the bike on the kick stand it is overfilled. Sorry WD, not everyone here agrees with that! Many of us intentionally want to see oil in the bottom of the window while on the stand.
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WD

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Re: frozen shifter
Reply #10 - 05/05/11 at 22:00:11

A little is fine. If the window is over 1/4 full on the kickstand you are at the least begging for oil to be blown out through the wiring grommet. The older they are, the more problems you get with overfilling. Seals shrink as they age, so do grommets and gaskets. Overfilling with too heavy of an oil can lock the shift drum. The grooves get full of oil and the unit hydrolocks (think water in a cylinder, it can only compress so far).

One other spot I forgot, check the belt tension. Too tight can force the crank pulley into an angle in relation to the snout it rides on. Puts pressure on the bearing/bushing/seal and makes everything "sticky".

I'm still betting on a bent linkage, really flimsy part. One of these days I'm going to strip mine down, sleeve it with some small diameter iron pipe and quit worrying about it.

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