the ever elusive second gear...

well..got my 82 ltd1000 all jetted..capped off the smog posrts..v&h pipe on and fired her up...runs great..throttle snaps reall good..tacks out and all...now the bad...took her on the inaugural run and discovered it will not engage 2nd gear..well it will for about .075 seconds then just revs with a very slight rattling noise..first is great all the way to 10,000rips..go past 2nd and 3rd 4th and 5th all fine..so..looking for the wealth of useful knowledge that i know is on here..never tore into a tranny before..however have split the cases before to replace a crank..any ideas on what i'm looking for..shift fork..etc..please help..thanx in advance..

Some likely culprits are -
-bent shift fork
-buggered up dogs on second gear

Since it is apperantly easy to shift past second, I reckon that rules out stuck neutral finder bearings.

Heve you checked for swine flu??:laugh:

i'm thinking shift fork..from a dead stop i can put it in 2nd and start out without it popping out...but when moving from 1st to second no dice...will find out soon enuff i hope..