no gears! but engine runs, neutral light works

so this is my sad story,
just got my carbs back from wiredgeorge, i crank her up, and i'm going around, then in to town about 60-65mph
i down-shift all the way, through neutral into 1st, and it just keeps rolling!
i never heard any thing, everything feels normal, the neutral indicator light works properly, but it's like i'm in neutral all the time
i had to push it about 100 yards slightly up-hill, to a moto shop, i told them to mess with it, i'm so mad, i have done all my own work so far, and put $1200 in to this bike now this! can anybody clue me in to what it might be? if so, i could get it back before they start to take it apart

does it have external shift linkage under output shaft cover like 900-1000? id start under there.did you try putting in gear with motor shut off ?

nope, the side cover just covers the sprocket, shift lever shaft and all goes inside, not sure if i tried with engine off, pretty sure i did though,

on the 900-1000s there is another cover under the big one,the linkage is behind that;)

Maybe the sprocket but unscrewed and the sprocket slid off the splines?
It's likely something simple, but there's no way of knowing till you start looking.

steell wrote:

Maybe the sprocket but unscrewed and the sprocket slid off the splines?
It's likely something simple, but there's no way of knowing till you start looking.

I can about guarantee this is what happened. Take off your sprocket cover, you'll find the sprocket nut has come off and the sprocket has slid out onto the splines. If you're lucky the nut is even still there. It's happened to me a few times over the years and one common denominator is it always happens when your downshifting from highway speeds to lower gears, then all of a sudden you have no gears. Either this happened, or your entire bottom of the engine fell off and the transmission along with it :laugh: No, I think the sprocket.

Sprocket nut sounds likely. But just in case, check to make sure you still have a chain.

i guess ive never lost a countershaft sprocket,but i would think it would be kind of obvious when the chain started dragging or wrapped itself up in the sprocket in clutch cover and locked the wheel up;) find anything out yet?

RonKZ650 wrote:

steell wrote:
.... one common denominator is it always happens when your downshifting from highway speeds to lower gears, then all of a sudden you have no gears.

Damn if you aren't right about that Ron. Happened to me exactly as you said , on my H2 many moons ago. No damage done and back on the road that day.

Kent

Of course there's a tanged lock washer you bend over against the nut that keeps this from ever happening. Problem is that most aftermarket sprockets have no hole for the tang, so either the lockwasher is not used or the nut is tightened against the washer, bent over the nut so all looks good, but no tang to hold the washer from loosening right along with the nut. Either way, even tightening the nut to 1000 ft/lbs the darn thing will eventually come off. I used loctite blue threadlocker once and the nut still came off. If you change sprockets insist on decent sprocket that has the hole for the tang.

my lock washer failed, I thought I lost the tranny, felt like parts were going to be hitting the ground real fast

well i got my moto back, sure enough, the sprocket came off, the crap is i have no nut now, and the threads are totally crapped up,
i'm thinking, welding it on or j-b welding it on, i don't think i'm ever going to split the case to change it, if i do, i could just replace it then,
what do tou think?:ohmy: