Gearbox cr*pped out

[cootertwo]

Watch out, that ZRX ain't no Rocket, but it will surprise you, I know, I own one!

 

[jpool]

I found a local independent shop who can do the whole job for a surprisingly reasonable labor cost, and best of all, with warranty. They've done lots of transmission jobs, and although not for Rockets, they were familiar with the bike and even had their own R3 service manual on the shelf. I'll probably drop off the bike this Saturday.

While the guts of the beast are open, are there any worthwhile durability upgrades to the Roadster motor or transmission, such as undercutting the dogs on some gears? Or just blueprint everything to factory specs?

 

[warp9.9]

You could get the gears cut but I bet the price is a wee bit to much for a bike that is not constantly racing. Beside no matte how good the gears are and of course we know the Roadster transmission shift easier. Now whether shifting easier equal bent shift forks or no I can not say. What I can say is if your forks are bent (not from the factory) then after you spend the cash on the gears they can still be destroyed if the forks get bent. I say before you start writing checks, you first find out what is wrong so you can figure out a possible WHY?

 

[alpental]

Maybe you can have replacement forks CNC milled out of a stronger material?

17: 1st/4th gear fork
18: 5th gear fork
19: 2nd/3rd gear fork

 

[alpental]

So what's the latest and greatest here? Did Ivan find out what went south?

 

[jpool]

I stopped by at the shop today with Abe, and the diagnosis was a bent shift fork causing the dog gears to round out, and 4th output gear to start slipping.

1st/4th shift fork looked pretty bad, and another shift fork also had lesser damage and will get replaced. In addition to output gear 4 in the picture below, the mechanic also recommended replacing output gears 5 and 3. The input side and shift drum looked OK.

All and all, this whole ordeal seems very similar to what @Claviger experienced a couple of months ago. Claviger mentioned that his bike needed a "positive kick" from 1st to 2nd for the 2nd gear to properly engage, and eventually his shift fork bent and messed up the 2nd gear. My bike has also needed a rather firm kick from 3rd to 4th for the 4th gear to engage, and now my 4th gear is buggered...

 

[BigNorm]

Thanks for posting pics. I'm glad you figured it out.

 

[Rocket3Pilot]

I don't remember the year models, but it just doesn't seem possible that one could bend the shift fork by shifting too hard, regardless which rocket one has?

It seems to me that these are rare instances of factory assembly or machining errors. If it were me, and I'm so glad it isn't (yet), Id have them change the entire transmission, especially if it's warranty work!

How long has your bike been down now, and what's the estimate?

 

[rocketjohn]

Thanks for posting pics. I'm glad you figured it out.

Inclined to agree, bent forks to me are soft forks, or badly made forks.

 

[jpool]

Come to think of it, my bike also had the problem of slipping out of 1st gear that several other captains have reported in new / low mileage bikes. That problem went away after 5k miles or so, but since my bike also needed pretty firm shifts from 3rd to 4th and AFAIK the same shift fork is controlling 1st and 4th gears, I'm also inclined to think the problem originated from the factory.

Unfortunately the bike is an '11 with 18k miles and I bought it used, so I'll get to pay from my own pocket. At the moment it's looking like about $1k in parts, another $1k in labor, and more than a month of downtime