It shifts like Buttah......

[Femmekat]

Oh baby. It shifts like butter.



Aw yeah....

After having increasingly worse 2nd gear issues on track at high rpms, where it felt like my rear tire was spinning out and the bike was trying to buck me off it became clear that my poor bike had fallen victim to the classic first generation R6 2nd gear slip problem. Hundreds and hundreds of bikes have had this issue, to the point where there was an effort at one point to sue Yamaha. With some bikes, it happens with as little as 5,000 miles on the clock, but more typically around the 20,000 mark. There are only 3 gear dogs on these bikes, which are prone to rounding off, then causing 2nd gear to slip. This was remedied on 2003 and newer R6's by adding 2 more gear dogs for a total of 5, and some have resolved it by having the gears undercut as well.

I located a guaranteed good condition used 2005 transmission, ordered up all the gaskets and hardware from RonAyers.com (which was awesome to deal with for OEM stuff) and enlisted the help of Eric Baker, our local first gen R6 expert .

After an epic ride to North Reading toting my lead filled messenger bag crammed to the brim with transmission parts, we set about pulling the engine. The front sprocket nut was a pain in the butt, but after some serious wrestling was overcome. After pulling and splitting the engine, we were able to access the tranny. At first inspection, it was easy to identify the problem. 2nd gear dogs were sure enough rounded off, and one of the shift forks was worn horribly. Half of the thickness of it was sheared off from repeated wear... Aha. That's where all the metal bits in my engine came from.

Everything went back together well, except for ending up covered in gasketmaker and we replaced the right and left side engine covers with NRC's. I had to replace the oil filter again due to someone overtightening and mangling the nut on the K&N (thanks Ted for meeting me Sunday!) and threw in a magnet for good measure. Hopefully the fresh oil, filter, magnet, and manual removal of metal bits from the engine will be enough.

Once engine was back in the bike, it was easy enough and I overcame my fear of not knowing where to put everything back. It wasn't that bad. Bike started right up without a hiccup. I wanted to jump for joy on the way home... 2 days of wrenching, $175 in parts, and my bike shifts awesome. It is now clear that it hasn't shifted right since I got it, so it will be great to have more faith in my machine and focus on just riding, rather than compensating for mechanical issues.

Thanks a million Eric for spending your entire weekend on this project. I sincerely appreciate it.

Pictures below:









Worn shift fork:



New case cover:





Almost ready to go:

[DaSarge]

The suspense is killing me

[CBR929RE]

gonna do low 1:30s on the 29th?

[Femmekat]

Hell yeah.... watch out.

[csmutty]

I'll be watching for 29's

[Eric Baker]

So you got home OK I take it? Good to hear it all works better.

[Femmekat]

Pics and write up added this morning

[Tricky Mike]

Do you not need to split the cases to replace the R6 tranny?

[Femmekat]

Yes, all covers had to be removed and the case split in 2. Just didn't take pictures of every single step...would have been a million photos

[Tricky Mike]

word... I thought this was as far as you needed to go to get the trans out... That would be pretty cool.

[Femmekat]

Are you kidding? Its a Yamaha. They make everything as difficult as possible...

And, after splitting the case in 2, there are these 3 stupid torx screws that are staked which you have to remove to get the main shaft out...the manual says you have to grind them out, then replace. Fortunately we were able to back them out without grinding, and put them back in and re-stake in a different spot.

[Tricky Mike]

Figures... sheesh.
Fixed:

the manual says you have to grind them out, then spend 3 hours further dismantling and cleaning everything you just covered in abrasive grit, then reassemble, then replace.

[Femmekat]

Figures... sheesh.
Fixed:

Haha, yeah. That's why we avoided grinding

[CBR929RE]

Are you kidding? Its a Yamaha. They make everything as difficult as possible...

I haven't worked on a Yamaha but your bike looks far easier to work on than my 600. even the wire harness is as short as possible making it a bitch to get the airbox out. throttle cable required taking the throttle bodies off, so aggravating taking a day to do a 30 minute job (most of it fighting with the cable before breaking down and taking the TBs off)

[Femmekat]

Not sure how the two bikes compare...but you should see how retarded it was to get the carbs off before modifying them... you have to pull the radiator basically, and loosen the allens in the clamps through the front of the frame... which is basically impossible. Retarded. When I had TLR man help put in the jet kit last spring we cut off the carb warmers so the clamps could be rotated and accessed from the sides. Best thing I ever did, considering I've had them off multiple times this season.

[Jim]

I haven't worked on a Yamaha but your bike looks far easier to work on than my 600. even the wire harness is as short as possible making it a bitch to get the airbox out. throttle cable required taking the throttle bodies off, so aggravating taking a day to do a 30 minute job (most of it fighting with the cable before breaking down and taking the TBs off)

not to go off topic, but you're right. i've worked on two 600rr's and the wiring is a bitch

[Paul_E_D]

I hope to god you undercut the dogs after going to all that trouble! Would suck to have the problem come back.

[Femmekat]

I hope to god you undercut the dogs after going to all that trouble! Would suck to have the problem come back.

My 2000 R6 had 3 dogs... I bought a 2005 transmission which has 5 dogs, which corrected the problem in the 2nd gens... To avoid a repeat of my issue, I purposely sought out a later generation transmission, one in which the problem had been corrected

[Paul_E_D]

Aaah, I see. Good job.

[FireboltEric_MA]

I like buttah...

[Chippertheripper]

I like buttah...

Door=open.


Big ups to mr baker for making this happen. I hope you learned a ton, Lauren. Perfect opportunity.

[Femmekat]

I like buttah...

Buttah is bettah....

Door=open.

Big ups to mr baker for making this happen. I hope you learned a ton, Lauren. Perfect opportunity.

Yes...Eric rocks

Spent his entire weekend listening to me babble, getting covered in oil, and having to lift and loosen heavy/overtorqued stuff.

I did learn a ton. It was a little unsettling, but cool to see my entire bike come apart, then back together. Never delved into an engine before. Thanks to him I will be doing my next track days and race weekend without a hitch in my giddyup

[SVRACER01]

Wirelessly posted (HTC EVO "DROID" : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; Sprint APA9292KT Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

That must've been what I feeling when I rode it.
I can't wait to try it with the new tranny

[CBR929RE]

Not sure how the two bikes compare...but you should see how retarded it was to get the carbs off before modifying them... you have to pull the radiator basically, and loosen the allens in the clamps through the front of the frame... which is basically impossible. Retarded. When I had TLR man help put in the jet kit last spring we cut off the carb warmers so the clamps could be rotated and accessed from the sides. Best thing I ever did, considering I've had them off multiple times this season.

wow that does sound like a big pain in the ass before the mod.

not to go off topic, but you're right. i've worked on two 600rr's and the wiring is a bitch

seriously. I kept thinking another 1/4 of an inch wouldn't have added enough weight to make a lick of difference in the weight charts.

[jmer24]

I have an 01 R6 and am starting to have problems shifting into 2nd gear. Nothing like what you described but it could be the start of something. Great write up, it might be something ill think about doing over the winter