Guys,

I just got back from taking Max to get my hair cut and whenever I shifted into 2nd gear, the chatter was VERY loud. You could feel it through the seat and handle bars. It felt like the gears weren't meshing and the transmission could lock up at any minute. All the other gears seem to be normal. And I could only hear it when accelerating in 2nd. After the first couple of times, I just skipped second gear completely.

Could this somehow be related to the recall work? I just had it done 2 weeks ago.

And how the hell can I find out? I'm not real sure I would want to take it back to the same place that did the work because they may try to blame it on something else.

I'm scared. I don't want Max to be broken.

- Grover

You better hope it's not the transmission.. It happened to me at 4k miles and I took it in for diagnosis, They found ball bearings in the oil that came from shifter shaft bearings that was causing the gear to not fully mesh. Damaged gears require engine removal & disassembly. Hopefully you got the extended warranty, otherwise it's like $3k for that job..

Well, I just got a chance to look at the issue. I've got no oil in the glass until I tilt the bike about 15 degrees toward the glass.

I'm really thinking the dealership F'd up the recall/service work I had done 2 weeks ago and didn't put the right amount of oil back in, if any at all.

I'm tempted to fill it with oil and see if the 2nd gear chatter goes away but I really don't want to mess with it until I have a chat with the service manager in the morning.

Then, how do I go about proving it was them if they ruined my engine?

This is killing me! I can't stand to have Max down and I certainly can't afford a $3000 repair job. I sure wish I would have gotten that extended warranty now.



- Grover

That's F'd up!

Was the oil pump replaced at the dealer? If so how many miles since then?

Yeah, they did the oil pump recall, standard scheduled service, and tires.

And to make matters worse, my truck is down right now too, so I don't even have a way of taking her in to the dealer.

When it rains, it pours I guess.

Forgottenone1227 wrote:
Call your dealer and let him know....these bikes don't break - UNLESS the dealer has worked on them and screwed up the oil pump install.

Everything points back to them at this point.

I would take video to document the oil level, then pull the clutch cover and take a peek.

Grover Document every thing miles dates times photo the oil window then pan out to show the stand if it comes down to
a pissing match having all that Chit on paper might save you , Bright side is there was some oil hopefully it was pumping
how many miles since the recall

Hopefully the chatter was the clutch do you use synthetic oil ?

My stomach turns for you its something we all dread hope it works out I don’t know what the laws are in the USA but if a Yamaha dealer F**ks up in the UK then they have to put it right or you contact Yamaha direct and get them to sort it I mean we don’t put new tyres on a bike just to take oil out to bugger the engine up

Thanks everyone for the support and suggestions.

I think we got it figured out. And I can't blame the dealership.

Vmax Brad and I tore into it yesterday before I was scheduled to drop her off at the dealership so we could get an idea of what was wrong before they tried to B.S. me into a $3000 bill for something that they F'd up.

Plenty of oil and it was clean. Oil pump installation looked good, if done at all. We couldn't really find any indication that it had even been done for sure. No wrench marks, scuff marks, or anything that would indicate they had even been in there. We did somewhat question the mating of the clutch basket gear to the crank shaft gear. It seemed like it could have been aligned a little better.

We could not find any indication of any fault done by the dealer's service work. Good on them.


So then we put it back together and Brad took it for a ride up and down the block. He immediately knew that I had something wrong inside the transmission and his first suspicion is possibly a bent shift fork.

Completely my fault or possibly mechanical failure. I cannot blame the dealer for this one. No extended warranty, no nuthin. I'm blaming myself though because I have been known to jam through the gears hard, sometimes hitting second without using the clutch to keep the front wheel up off the ground. (Don't tell my wife)

I've turned a wrench or two in my day so I'm going to attempt this repair myself. I've always told myself that I wanted to know this bike inside and out...I guess now is my chance. I'm actually excited to get started.



- Grover

Damn!! keep us updated...