1982 KZ1000J only selecting 1st and neutral

As the title says, my Z1000 will go into first and neutral but not second, I'm assuming this will be related to the gear shift mechanism behind the sprocket.

I've never touched a motorcycle gearbox before, I'm thinking of taking it to the shop to be fixed.

Kaws have a positive neutral which wont allow the gearbox to go into 2nd gear unless the bike is moving.
Are you trying to shift while standing still or on the bench ???
Dave

Someone on facebook has just pointed this out to me, it would be alright if I hadn't already drained the oil and taken the clutch cover off.

Julian_Boolean wrote: Someone on facebook has just pointed this out to me, it would be alright if I hadn't already drained the oil and taken the clutch cover off.

Small price to pay for one of lifes lessons :S

Sometimes you get the Bear :evil:

Sometimes the Bear gets You

Dave

Now you know how to remove the clutch cover & what the stuff looks like under there.

One of Kawasaki's better ideas??????Ta either love or hate the positive neutral finder - I'm a hater myself.

If the chain is off, try spinning the countershaft sprocket fast with your hand while jabbing the shifter. The output shaft has to be turning quite fast before the trans will shift into second, then it will shift to third, fourth, etc... normally.

The positive neutral finder works by "centrifugal force", and all the components are located in the countershaft. It consists of a set of ball bearing little plungers and a ramp groove. They basically prevent the second gear from sliding on the countershaft and engaging the drive dogs on the next gear over. For anyone who wants to know, the system can be disabled and the trans can be made to shift normally quite easily, but the trans has to be removed and the countershaft has to be disassembled to take the parts out. Jberger's GPz1100 / 1400 had this done before he got it, and until then I had never thought of doing it....

Just glad I read this before taking the cover off behind the spricket.

Kay-Z,
I think this is a far better solution than Kawasaki used on many of its two-stokes, like the H1 and H2 - putting neutral at the bottom of the shift pattern.

Nah, I still have to many reasons to not like the PNF - like once when I had a buddy whose battery kept dying in his KZ (at the time I was strictly a Honda / Yamaha only person). Hated the fact we couldn't put it in a higher gear at a standstill to push start it. We had to waste valuable space and effort just to get it into a higher gear before running out of either "steam" from pushing, or short / slight downhill length of run (damned prairies!), or just the end of 7-eleven or gas station parking lot before we could get the damn thing in fourth or fifth to bump start....
And it would be nice to be able to start moving in second sometimes....and be able to check the shifting while assembling the engine on the bench without having to spin the countershaft...

I still think all that inconvenience beats diving deeply into a hairpin corner only to discover that you overshot first and have chosen neutral as your exit gear :blink:

Yea, the neutral at bottom of a H2 is the worst thing ever. H2 is geared to go like 60mph in 1st gear, so easy to think you are in 2nd or 3rd even when shifting down. As to the positive neutral finder in the KZs, it works just fine and I can take it or leave it. As to question #1278 of the same question, Same answer as last 1277, you can't shift into second without the wheel rolling. Any guess on same question date? I''ll guess 4 days from now so 10/5/16.

Next time I open my tran's I plan on removing it since I drag race mine I'd like to be able to do my burnout in second or thrid gear.