400ex transmission problems ??????

[barbwire44]

Has anyone had any tranny problems like this......This weekend while breaking in my je piston and cam, the transmission wouldnt shift above 2nd gear. So i stopped started looking everything over trying to find the problem and two guys pulled up on 400ex's. I told them what happened and they both had experienced the same thing before and said they just keep riding and it eventually would start shifting again, so i was out in the middle of no-mans land and decided i would try, After 10 minutes of banging the hell out of the gears it started shifting on occasion so i continued riding the rest of the day and about 3 hours after the first problem it started shifting smoothly again. Has anyone else had this problem? The only thing i could think of was maybe a piece of gasket paper got in the tranny, because i had just rebuilt the motor a few days before.:(

[crday98]

i know personally about 25 people who have 400ex's and none have had any problems with the tranny.

[oynot400]

Is the clutch working properly? If the clutch is not engaging completely that would make it hard to shift.

I have had problems with getting mine into first. A lot of times I will need to shift up to third in order to shift down to first. A lot of times I will not be able to get it into first even when I bang the heck out of it. Just strange. Don't know if this could be a similar situation.

[barbwire44]

Is the clutch working properly? If the clutch is not engaging completely that would make it hard to shift.

Yes the clutch is working fine, another thing i will add is that the bike wouldn't shift while running, or when shut off. And also when it did start shifting again it would shift easier as the rpm increased, i mean it would shift hard at 1/4 throttle but at 3/4 it would shift normally. I have never heard of this until it happened and usually if something was wrong it wouldnt start working normally again as this did.

[oynot400]

I know that this can be a problem on banshees. At low rpms there is no clutch and at the higher rpms the clutch work fine or some what fine. On them they have a screw that hold the clutch together and can be used for futher adjustment. This sounds alot like the banshee problem, the only thing is that the 400 doesn't have that screw on the clutch. There may be another problem with the clutch, you may need to take it apart and inspect it.
I would be curious to know what you find out. Hope this helps. :)

[51]

my one friend that i race with crushed his tranny a few weeks back in his 400..like when you put it in gear it does nothing..same with all rthe gears and his clutch is good... he is gettin ready to pay big bux for a new tranny..so i'd have your bike looked at ....just my .002

[bsr]

Sounds like a problem with the clutch, make sure the clutch is adjusted tight enough. It may also be the clutch plates..

if your tranny would shift from 1st to 2nd but then not up into 3rd it's not a clutch deal...it sounds to be a shift fork problem...i would get a good manual and split the cases if i was you cause it may hurt it more to keep riding on it..or you could also let the boys at the dealer fix it and pay way to much for a thing thats easy to do but scares people to do it

[barbwire44]

Well the ole 400 is running again, the transmision trouble i had was the shifting spindle.I could not see any bend in it but after looking at everything else in the tranny it was the only part that was in question, so i installed a new shifting spindle assembly and she shifts great again.:D

good to hear