Kawasaki Vaquero transmission problems.

[@Jodyrides]

Second gear is the most common failure gear in sequential transmissions on motorcycles. The issue is, people, wind, first gear, pretty high on the RPMs, that gets all of those shafts in the transmissions, spinning very fast. Then they shift to second. All of that torque, all of that spinning mass has inertia. when shifting from 1st to 2nd, or any other gear, for that matter, you make the gear, you are shifting into stop dead, when that dog messes with the gear beside it, that it indexes into. These gears do not engage and disengage with the gears faces that you see, spinning the shafts.. these gears power flow goes through the gear beside the gear, you’re shifting out of. These are called constant mesh, sequential transmissions. The gears are always matched on the outsides of the gears between the main shaft, the input shaft, and the output shaft. It’s the gear stopping dead from high RPMs that rounds off the corners of the dogs. At first, you will feel that the bike is missing shifts, or jumping out of gear... it’s caused by two things, taking the RPMs up too high, and then shifting, and it’s also caused by not shifting quickly. I’m not saying shift harder, I’m saying shift quickly… Believe it, or not, using the clutch, does not have much to do with shifting. These are constant, mesh, transmissions, the same crashing goes on inside the transmission, whether you pull the clutch in or not… formula One cars have constant mash sequential transmission. They shift in one 2000s of a second. When they pull on the paddle to shift, it simply cuts the ignition for a fraction of a second to take the load off of the gear while the transmission shifts to another ratio… they do not use the clutch. when I rode raced for years, I very rarely used the clutch for upshifting. I mostly use the clutch in the rain, and out of slow corners, and for the start. And sometimes for downshifting. But you have to have the touch, the coordination of knowing how to let off the throttle, and get the transmission to shift when there is no deceleration or acceleration loading on the gears…

[@AndoniTejerina]

Oh god.... my vn1700 started doing some noises last week, I took it to the official garage and they didn't know where the noise was coming from. After watching some videos... this is it... is the same noise in the same situation.... I'll show them this video tomorrow.

[@Jodyrides]

oh, my God, if you suspect your transmission shaft, bearings are missing some balls, stop riding that motorcycle immediately. When your transmission locks up on you, pulling the clutch, and does not save you because, the clutch only disconnects the crankshaft from the main input shaft of the transmission, once that transmission locks up, that back wheel will lock, and you better hang on because there’s no way to get that rear wheel to freewheel when the transmission.locks up.. motorcycle oil has increased levels of zinc and phosphorus which are additives to increase the film strength of the oil. Gear faces under load have exceeded 100,000 psi since the late 1980s on motorcycle transmissions… you cannot run automobile oil in a motorcycle, four stroke engine that uses the same oil to lubricate the crankshaft as it does to lubricate the transmission.. I have had to transmission lock ups. One after I had just rebuilt, a road racing engine, and I forgot to put oil in the gearbox. It locked up almost immediately. The back wheel locked and nothing I could do to get it to stop and drag to the back tire down and flat spotted it ruining the tire. I was lucky I did not go down because I didn’t have my gear on yet, I was simply bump, starting it to warm it up… The second transmission locked up I had was on a Yamaha RZ352 Stroke St. bike. I was unaware that the transmission holds 2 quarts of oil. I thought that was relatively the same engine as the RD 350 which holds 1.1 quarts of oil.. so, for a long time, I was running the transmission, the low the minimum amount of oil it should have. One day on my way to work, going uphill, the transmission locked. I pulled the clutch in reactionary, it didn’t matter, that bike fishtailed uphill for over 130 feet until the rear tire actually blew out because I burned through the tire, dragging it up hill .. when I split those cases to find out what happened, seven of the gears had teeth broken off and two of the gears were seized on the main shaft.. your oil could be only a month, old, and it can be worn out. The term for worn out motorcycle oil is called, sheared. The molecules in the oil have been smashed by the gears and cut, and cut, and cut, and cut until they have no molecular length anymore. They have no elasticity… when you feel that you’re shifting becomes more difficult, or you feel that it is a little harder to get your bike into neutral, that is the first sign that your oil is sheared and needs to be replaced.. there is no more hostile environment for oil to exist in then a transmission. They don’t call them crash boxes for nothing. Inside a car engine, the most harsh environment is the lifters on the camshaft. But they don’t have much pressure on them because they are only combating against valve springs… but in a motorcycle transmission, they always used to have 90 weight gear lube in them. Even to this day motor Guzzi and other brands from Europe still use 90 weight gear lube in their gear boxes… It is a modern day marvel that they have developed oil to the point that it can lubricate the engine, crankshaft and cam and piston and the transmission with one oil

[@Victors_Stuff]

GL luck. I hope you can get up and running before the weekend ride

[@johnkettles4203]

It looks like with getting the parts shipped up from the US. It's not going be done till next week. Thanks John

[@andrewsmith7367]

Did you buy the bike used. It could have been abused maybe shifting without the clutch. I've seen a few with the same issue.

[@DirtObseXXion]

Dang, that sounds terrible. I have the 2015 model that I bought used. 15k miles on it and the only issue I have is that it leaks coolant from the reservoir when it gets really cold out.. Only when it's sitting though. When it warms up it's fine.. I'm assuming it's the mechanical seal but I haven't tore into it yet.. Hope you got it all sorted!

[@AndersonCsoperadorCNC]

Hi Jonh, I have the same problem with my 2017. If this information is possible, it would be very important for me to know how much you spent to solve this problem.

[@Archermotorcycleandtire]

Did you ever get it fixed??

[@ericlou3405]

shift forks, major work sorry

[@wizard5201]

And I was about to sell the HD and buy one, now I am leary. A fellow Canadian

[@johnkettles548]

I'm happy with what ever my follow rider rides. What happened to my Kawasaki was a fluke, but not the second gear problem. I just don't rev it out hard in second gear anymore. The second gear is weak in these Kawasaki Vaquero's. I'm presently looking at going to the gold side, and looking out to get myself pn a Honda Goldwing. LOL Ride safely.

[@thegoblin2684]

Time to trade it

[@johnkettles4203]

Hey green goblin, I thought about trading it in. But unfortunately I wouldn't have got much the way it was. But since I fixed it myself I felt it was worth it. Couldn't afford to buy another bike. LOL

[@dmitriydanilov3229]

you are not saving when you buy a used motorcycle!!!