false neutral...damn!

So I been looking at some old threads about a situation that I have. It first happened about a month and a half ago, and has happened twice since then. It is always the same thing, WOT in 4th gear, once I get up there say 7 grand rpm it jumps into a "false neutral" as I have read it called, and redlines. I then shift into 5th after trying to keep the poo in my pants, and everything is fine. It has never happened in 2nd like I would expect, never in any gear but in 4th, never when cold, only when the bike is warm, and I am having some fun. This never happens under normal acceleration, only under hard throttle in 4th. I wouldn't care too much but I am going to be making the bike fster and intend to take it to the strip once in a while so I will be WOT a lot of the time.

Is splitting the case and repairing this something a newb should not try?

it could be caused by a bent shift fork,worn engaugement dogs on the gears or a bent shift fork rod or even something as easy as a loose shifter peddle if it is in the tran's it self it will require the cases be split and repaired internally. but first and easiest first check to see that the shifter is tight and depending on the size of your boot make sure your getting full travel with it it may sound funny but i have seen a problem like yours being caused by a guy not shifting completely because his boot was binding up on the engine cases.

Sounds like your transmission engagement dogs are starting to wear thin. You can have them undercut by places like APE, for instance. Theres several other reasons though...

I'm not 100% certain for that bike, but I think you can drop the pan, and remove the clutch cover, tranny linkage, than tranny cover. pull the gear rods and drop the sets out the bottom.

You will need a various assortment of tools...

Its maybe not for a newb, but isn't really difficult to do, especially if you have a good factory/clymer manual. Which you REALLY should have...

Did'nt you say you were in Canada, where bouts brother?

also i noticed in your post that it is only happening a few times not all the time if it was all the time i'd be leaning toward an internal problem since it it isn't happening i'd be looking for an external problem

I live in Kingston ontario Tek9. Well, funny you mention the boot size Tim, cause I have size 16 motorcycle boots and 17 workboots, and I am really cramped under the shifter lever and my shifter lever is kind of sloppy. I tightened it up when I put the c/s cover back on after a new stator and it felt good, but is sloppy like my ex girlfriend again. I never thought of it being something this simple, but when I am shifting with my work boots (going to and from work) I find shifting quite hard to do smoothly. I plan on taking those big heavy aluminum plates that the pegs are bolted to on my bike off this winter, so maybe I will arrange for more room for my big boots. Maybe some diy rearsets while keeping the lever where it is, maybe just shortening in a bit

I found that my 550 had way more room for my boots than the 1000, weird!

This gives me hope because by the time I am in 4th gear and doing 7 grand I am holding on tight and not paying too much attention to my foot, so it may be messing up and not shifting all the way, or keeping the lever up a bit because of my fat foot. I should always blame myself before jumping to it being kawasaki's fault!

check external linkage.i found that shortening shifter and not using clutch made life much easier on me when shifting

I originally thought that the shaft that the shift lever is on was loose, but when I took the sprocket cover off during my stator swap it was fine, it is the lever itself that is not tightening enough on the shaft. Not sure how it loosened after I tightened it down, maybe I will clean it up good and put some medium locktite on it.

check splines on shaft and shifter

The splines on the shaft seem good, one thing did look funny though, on the shaft in basically the middle of the splined area there seemed to be a ring worn away all the way around the shaft where the bolt that tightens the lever on is. It looked funny because it was all the way around, I suppose this is so that you can adjust the lever. It looked like it was supposed to be that way so that the bolt could have clearance, but i wasn't sure.

try squeezing it together just a little before putting it on the shaft to see if that helps,otherwise im a big fan of dirtbike shift levers since they tend to be shorter

Every 550 I've ridden had a tendency to do that always just before top gear. I could tell, though, after time, that it happened when I was going fast and was being lazy about my shifting. If I make a solid shift every time, it doesn't happen.

Not sure what causes this.

my 550 didn't do this, it's my 1000 that is being like this.

I got it on there good for a while, it was tight as a tiger, not going anywhere, then it got loose again. I think maybe the bolt backed out a bit, this is why I am thinking of the locktite next time I put it back on. I think I may check out a dirtbike shifter like you say there Plumb.

Thx