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05-06 ZX6R/RR Change out shifting forks

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187K views 120 replies 32 participants last post by  wolz  
#1 ·
To do this you will NEED A SPANNER CLUTCH TOOL!!! I have tried without one and broke my clutch basket which is $300 the tool is only like $30 so buy one or borrow one. If you have been wanting to install an after market shift start now is the time. I would suggest still having a manual when doing this to reference too. I am not responsible if you pull it apart and mess up or can't put it back together..... sorry. It's really not hard to do but some people can't even change plugs so please know your own limits.


1)Pull your fairings off. For stock fairings just the sides and lower should be good.
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2)Unbolt your radiator and tie it forward against your front tire so you can reach the header bolts easily and not damage your radiator.
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3)Remove your headers and exhaust. You might not have to completely remove everything but you need to make sure none of it is blocking the oil pan from dropping straight down. I had to remove everything but the can under the tail.
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4)Drain the oil thru the plug on the oil pan and then pull the clutch cover off of the motor and remover your clutch.
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5)This next part is probebly the hardest part. You WILL NEED the clutch tool to do this. I have broken my clutch basket before and they cost $300. Once you have the tool you will need an impact or breaker bar to remove that bolt. Take your time and DO NOT round it off.
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6)To be able to remove the clutch basket you have to slide out the inner ring, otherwise it will not pass part of the case on the right. To slide out the inner ring I start to thread a dry wall screw into the hole and pull it out. It might take a few tries but it should slide out pretty easy.
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7)Undo your shifter linkage off of the input shaft on the shifter side of the motor. Once it is off you should be able to pull the shifter rod out from the clutch side of the motor. WIth that out of the way you can see the shifting star and the ends of the rods holding your shifting forks. There is a small metal plate that is holding in the shift star/shift drum and the shift forks rod(don't remove the 2 bolts yet). Remove the oil pan from the bottom of the engine before removing any more from this side.
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8) I had to lay my bike on it's side to get pics of the transmission from under. There is another rod with gears under the shifting drum you can't see.
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9)Ok now remove the 2 hex heads holding in the shift star/shift drum and the shift forks. Slide out the rods and reach under the engine,try and keep a hand under the forks because they will drop out. With the front rod 1 fork will drop and with the rear rod 2 forks will drop out. Now inspect them.
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Normal wear
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My quick shifter killed the fork on the left. You can see it is shaved down really bad.
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Install goes pretty easy just reverse it all and follow manual for all torque specs. I don't put in new gaskets everytime because my motor is taken apart too much. I clean the old one and all surfaces and use gasket maker from the parts store. It took me about 2 hours with taking pics to drop the forks out. To change out gears you will have to remove your WHOLE motor and split your case but with the shift drum and the shift forks out you can easily inspect all your gears for damage and see if they need to be replaced.
 
#39 ·
Thanks Nevada, this sucks major balls. Look at the shift fork, I'm pretty damn sure it wore the fugg out of the dogs :mad:
chicken or the egg....

does the jumping out wear the fork...or does the fork wear, and let the gears jump apart...
which happens first?
who knows...

but my fork looked like the above. not quite as bad as ur tho. about like spooners
 
#41 ·
ok...BUT. you cant see the dogs. theyre on the sides of the gears. the teeth are fine on mine too.

im not sure if ur able to see them while the trans is together or not.
spooner might know. considering he just had his apart.

ive got some pics around here somewhere..lemme see if i can find them
 
#42 ·
You can see them with the engine still together. With the forks and shifting drum out you can slide the gears apart to see the dogs and inspect them. The hard part is making sure you look around the whole gear(spin and see all sides). As you spin the gear it will usually binned because with all the shifting parts out your gears are all out of wack and conflict with each other. So just get you head under there with a very bright light and take your time inspecting. By the looks of your forks and your shifting drum(that thing is toast) there must be wear on the dogs for your gears.

Mines is back apart on the floor all the way down to the gears now. I am trying to get these stupid "C" clips off of the gear shaft so I can slide the gears off for inspection/replacement.
 
#47 ·
Got the bike apart. My front fork won't come out. I've even took off the arm to the Star Shifter so I can move the drum and gears some and no dice, it won't come out.:confused: This is a bike I was riding the other day, so no shifting abnormalities short of it popping in 3rd. Lots of play in there, but that booger won't come out. As for the rear 2, I don't even see how they would clear the drum, but I haven't tried them yet. One of those butt kicker things. I guess I'll go back over and look at it again..............:rolleyes:
 
#48 · (Edited)
Did you remove the 2 hex screws that hold the plate that holds the rods in place? One is right below the rod on the left and one is below and to the right of the rod on the right in picture. Once you slide out the 2 rods all the forks should fall out.
 

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#53 ·
Unfortunately Spooner I'm not gonna do that. If I did, I'd have to sell my track day coming up. I could have not done anything and gotten by. I've been known to bypass 3rd and keep on going. I'll be willing to take my chances and see what happens. If it later requires more work, then the track days might be over for me. I'm on an extreemly tight budget and it only takes about $100 to make or break a deal on anything I do. We ZRX guys have a "hook-up" at a Kawi dealer I'm hoping will PM me back. Usually $25% off. So I hope I get an answer soon. My next couple weekends are full and that's about the only time I get to work on it. Tires and suspension setup today. I'll keep plugging along.:D
 
#55 ·
I don't know too much about transmissions (yet) but basically there are multiple worn parts that are all contributing to second gear slipping out of gear.
Not sure how exactly the drum plays a role but I'm replacing it anyway cause it is very worn in one spot as you can see here

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The shift fork is extremely worn and ground down a bit.
I would assume that the wear is causing the dog to not engage as far as it should
(hence it slipping out in the higher rpms)

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With that in the equation, we now have the 2nd gear output. The edges are rounded off pretty good (from the multiple times its slipped I would assume) therefore it isn't going to lock into gear as well since it doesn't have that straight machined edge and is now prone to slip.


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The top gear output has some wear on it as well (obviously since its dogs engage into the 2nd gear output

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#60 · (Edited)
I recently got all my OEM trans replacement parts that were worn (gears,drum,forks) along with my factory pro evo shift star kit. I'm a bit intimidated putting it all back together but if I run into any problems I'll be sure and post up. Here what I am starting from. . .

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#61 ·
Hi, this is my first post here, as I just purchased a 2000 ZX7R that had a locked up transmission. I spent about 6 hours pulling the engine and finally swapped in the new transmission the previous owner purchased but never installed. I have a picture of the failure... the driven 2nd gear actually fractured at the edge of a spoke. Has anyone seen this before? I'm guessing the previous owner tried dumping the clutch in 2nd gear, or this gear had a problem during manufacture. Let me know what you guys think.

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#62 ·
**dudewhrsmybike**
It seems scary but it goes back together pretty quick. If you do have problems post them up.

**turboaction**
That is some CRAZY damage!! I don't think that is from dumping the clutch. Everything is in gear and syncronized when the clutch is in and you rev it and pop it. I think that person was shifting without the clutch and when that gear tried to slide over it got bound and broke under the pressure. Could be drag racing or people doing burn out and clutchless shifting up gears thru the trans.
Did the bike have anything aftermarket to make you think they were drag racing it? lowered front, extended rear, bald tire down the center,etc.....
 
#63 · (Edited)
Did the bike have anything aftermarket to make you think they were drag racing it? lowered front, extended rear, bald tire down the center,etc.....
(edit) I forgot to mention this bike has a Yoshimura muffler, not sure about the pipe. As far as I can tell, the rest of the bike is stock. Can you guys tell me if the stock header has an equalization manifold across the cylinders near the cylinder head? I'm trying to figure out if these pipes are stock. I noticed when I split the cases that the oil sump pickup had "97 ZX7R" in junkyard paint pen. I'm guessing at one time the front end came down hard and cracked the oil pan and bent up the header. The header is in very nice shape, but is painted black and just starting to get a couple rust spots.

I think the previous owner was pretty hard on it (I bought it from the second owner). The bike was dropped very early in its life and had the right side fairing replaced. Then the bike fell on the left side and cracked that fairing and broke the rear peg off (was rewelded and polished). The guy said the bike was slipping out of 2nd gear sometimes, then when he was going 30mph the rear tire just locked.

The bike has 16,000 miles on it, 10,000 of which were put on by the last owner. When the transmission locked, the guy bought a new ZX6R and flipped it while doing a wheelie and messed himself up pretty bad. I'm guessing the trans failed due to a lot of hard 1-2 shifts from wheelies. The front tire was worn pretty bad on the sides and the rear tire was fairly new. The bike is really pretty clean and I think I got a good deal for $1900 since it came with a complete trans and a spare cylinder head, complete with valves and cams for future porting work. Here's a pic of the bike before I took it apart:

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#65 ·
I got my tranny back together this weekend. One fork and a drum replaced. Had to do it twice cause I put the forward fork in backwards.......and it will go that way and work to, so be careful. "I" had to drop the drum down some to get it in correctly. Hardest part if you don't have a good impact wrench, will be taking the clutch basket nut off. Otherwise not too bad of a job......if you run with plastic.....:D Wish I knew what I do now, I took the engine out of my ZRX to do it...:rolleyes: That engine is one heavy MoFo!!!
 
#66 ·
After reading this forum more, I decided to closely examine my shift drum and shift forks. On top of 2nd gear being broken, the shift fork that engages 2nd gear was toast AND the shift drum had a chunk missing. Luckily the bike came with all the parts I needed, so I was able to get the engine and trans back together tonight and made sure the trans shifts through all the gears. If all goes well, this bike will be back on the road this weekend!
 
#67 ·
yeah you gotta watch out because all those parts work closely together and when one parts starts to wear it usually puts stress on and wears another part. If there are any marks in the shift drum I would change it. It can cause some wierd problems on top of popping out of gear.