2000 400 ex shift problems

[briguy3822]

just wondering if anyone has had any problems with their 400ex transmissions. mine has worked flawlessly thru many a poundings until today, pulling up on the shift lever accomplishes nothing. the only way to shift thru gears is to wind engine up to high rpm's let rpms drop to near idle, and pop it up or down a gear. this seems to allow the chain to backlash against the tranny long enough for a shift. you can get it thru the gears but this proccess of letting the engine idle between shifts is for the birds!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Brian

[xcracer416]

mine did that before. my problem was the stock shift lever is made out of pot metal ( the reason i know is that i work at a machine shop ) over time the teeth on the inside where your shift shaft goes through will wear out the shift lever. thats what was wrong with mine, i didnt know till it was to late and broke my shift shaft. take it off and look at it and if you see that it is starting to strip put on an after market one. thats what my problem was though.

[briguy3822]

appreciate your help racer,

however i dont think the shifter is the problem, it was slightly loose, i removed it, cleaned it and torqued it back to beyond specs and it seemed quite snug. how much did it cost to split the cases to do the shift shaft or did you do it yourself. i am a fairly confident wrencher, yet im not sure im ready to get into a tranny.


Thanks again

Brian

[xcracer416]

i done all of my own work, thanks to shop manual. it took about 8 hours, and the part was about $92, and you need the complete engine gasket kit, top and bottom. anyway its not all that hard to do. if it was loose then id go ahead and put a shifter on it cause the pot metal that its made of could tighten like you said but it will get loose again.

[briguy3822]

racer

appreciate the help,sounds like i had better get to wrenching!

i will keep you posted on progress

thanks again