First thing I would look at is the shift lever placement. Is it binding or hitting on something else? Operate it by hand while observing the movement or lack of.
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Thank you for taking the time to reply! It seems fine to my eye, but I'll take another look and try messing around with it more. Before this incident, I was able to shift into neutral just by using my hand on the shift pedal, but if it's still technically in 3rd gear, I guess that could explain why I can't do it right now. I have to think it's something with the shift lever, but I just don't really know where to start. I guess I'll try adjusting the length, maybe realigning the shift lever clamp on the shift shaft, etc.

 

It has to do with the alignment, angle of the various linkages in the overall mechanism relative to each other. After a goty Z400 I adjusted the gear lever to increase the gap for the toe of my boot to make shifting easier. The normal adjustment range was not quite enough to give me what I wanted, so I moved the lever two splines along on the shaft. Thisade shifting almost impossible. Eventually I reverted to the original set-up and just adjusted all the linkages to their limit.

There are a couple of threads on here covering this problem and what the setup should be.

I am presently on holiday and don't have the bike or the computer with the manual with me, otherwise I could show you this. Searching the forum should pick these up. As I recall, RichT was one of the members who posted about this.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks so much for your reply! Yea, I think I might have to mess around with how the splines line up. This is seeming like it's just going to be a lot of trial and error at this point. I'll also take another look through the manual to see if there's anything else that can guide me further. I hope you enjoy your holiday!

 

A dot of white out on the shaft and pivot arm will assure proper alignment upon re-assembly. I know that doesn't help now, but maybe next time.
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Anything to prevent this from being a problem in the future is definitely appreciated - I did notice the clamp was able to slide forward and back a little with some pulling, so if the alignment is so important, something to keep it in place is a good idea!

 

Take a look at this thread, specifically the second post. There should be a mark, and there is a nut an bolt that tightened the shift lever to the shaft.

It looks like your punch mark and line are not aligned... Is that intentional?

View attachment 30201

View attachment 30200

 

Thank you for taking the time to find this for me! I believe I saw this post as well and yes, I did make sure that the punch mark and line were aligned when I attached the clamp. So evidently there is something else I'm missing! I haven't had much time to work on it the past few days, but hopefully I can tomorrow.

 

• When I turned on the bike, it showed I was in 6th gear.
• Starting moving from a stop, I could feel the engine “lugging” like it was in a higher gear?

Starting in 6th would definitely lug the engine!

Send a picture of your shifter.

Also keep in mind the bike won't shift properly unless the rear wheel is rotated. You can use one hand to turn the rear wheel and the other hand to work the shifter if you have the bike up on a paddock stand.

Chain and sprockets are independent of the shifter. No relation.

The shifter having a couple of mm of movement along the shaft is normal before tightening. That's not the issue, rather the height of the shifter is, or if it's binding/rubbing on anything not reinstalled properly.

 

Whelp, I'm an idiot. After finally getting another really close look, I could see that the little line was not actually lined up with the dot on the clamp (I did intend to do that when I initially attached it, but I guess I missed), so I'm guessing/hoping that solves my problem. Thank you to everyone for your help and sorry for being slow!

As for the engine lugging issue, I think that's just because it had been in third when I went to take the sprocket off - I don't think it's actually in 6th gear (I doubt I would be able to get it moving from a stop in 6th without killing it).

Consider this solved and thank you again everyone for your help!

 

Not an idiot. I think that most of us have learnt by making mistakes. I hope it is sorted.

 

"Mistakes"? What are these? I am not familiar with the concept. But I'm only 56 years old.

 

• I aligned the shift lever clamp on the shift shaft as described in the manual (see below).

Does anyone have any ideas on what the problem is and how I can resolve it? Is it the position of the shift lever clamp on the shift shaft? Is the shift lever misaligned?
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Looking at your picture vs the one in the manual, you didn't align the shifter properly.

edit: oops, see you figured that out already