Gear Selector Spring

V

Vince

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As soon as my Sciatica settles down I will swap out my broken spring and from memory of doing this the last time, maybe 5 years ago, this spring can be orientated 2 ways, bent leg on top or on the bottom. Is this required to be correct or does it not matter? I remember spreading this spring to fit is a bit of a bastard, is there an easier way than brute force and a big screwdriver? Anyone got a picture of a spring fitted correctly?
 

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Know how you love buying shit Vince, this is a must for pulling springs, particularly taught ones, you can do the pawl spring with pliers….
 
Years ago I bought one of those spring puller hooks with a plastic handle. First time I used it was on a Kawasaki centre stand spring and the shank pulled out of the handle, causing me to bash my knuckles when it let go. All it had to hold it together was a couple of small deformations in the end of the shank, barely big enough to tear a bit of plastic out of the handle. I chucked it away in disgust and made my own with a welded steel handle.
 
My back and hips are slowly coming good, every Sciatic nerve pinch hurts like hell but keeps the swelling that increases the pain and increases the chance of another nerve pinch, nice little circle. Anyway, I managed to slowly replace that gear selector spring, that pic helped a lot thanks Piet, finish the oil change and wash the bloody filthy thing. No polishing for Sunday's rego day, not bending down and doing more back damage. Hope I still have 5 gears. Hope the now correct shock sag allows some compliance and less cricket bat to the arse effect that caused the nerve pinch off the potholes.
 
You're not on your own with a crook back Vince. I have 6 monthly CT scans as a follow-up to my cancer treatment (so far so good - no tumours found). The scans show pretty much everything in the body. The doc said to me, "Your back is fucked. There's a lot of wear and tear on the vertebrae and disks". Apparently that's pretty much normal for a bloke of my age (71). I suppose that explains why it hurts whenever I spend a few hours doing manual work. I've been working in the garden today and my back is hurting. I'm waiting for the medical profession to come up with a cure for old age.
 
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In case no-one's told you, there are a range of exercises designed to free the pinched nerve.
What worked for me was half pressups. Hips left on the floor and raise the top half of the body.
After five bloody years of sciatic pain, a clever doctor told me of four or five exercises to try.
The information is out there.
 
I have had Sciatic nerve pinches since I was about 21, every few years apart doing stupid stuff with heavy things. I learned to avoid bending and twisting but multiple extremely painful compressions on those 2 x 4-day rides, some felt like bone-on-bone caught me out. I got a lot done today so I need some quiet time for the next day or so. Use it or lose it doesn't work for this, I have seen some crazy shit people try, one idiot mate thought a good solid day on his Dirt Bike would help, he lasted 10 minutes. You need the swelling to subside, or you get something way worse. The worst time for me had me guarding my back by stressing my stomach muscles, really bad, it took a week of physio every day on my abdomen to ease up before she could do my back. Avoid that if you can.
 
Greg yep, been through Pyisio a few times and it works very well. For me, it's episodic from doing one dumb thing, and usually in mild cases with rest lasting less than a week and it's years between events. If I come back too soon that's when it can be more than mild. Having it constantly for years would be HORRIFIC. In this case, the second 4-day ride happened before I fully recovered, my stupid shock settings didn't help, and neither did all that rain and road damage. For full effect try bouncing up and down 100mm on concrete with your arse for 8 hours straight and see the effect, it hurts after a while
 
I used to get through those springs at the rate of one every 3-4 years...came to regard them in the same way as pads, batteries or tyres....something that would wear out ( break ) and need replacing on a regular basis .

When one did break I found if you jiggled the gear lever around you could find second ( low enough to pull away from a standstill...just , and then change up to third .....which would give a half reasonable cruising speed , , which would enable you to get home .......Just remember not to stray beyond those two gears...which would mean another stop to re-jiggle.....

It`s something you could replace at the roadside...trouble is you tend to lose a fair amount of oil ....unless maybe you were able to lay the bike right down on it`s side .

Eventually decided to replace them on a regular time schedule before they had a chance to break .

BTW I can sympathise with those suffering sciatica and back pain , shouldn`t complain really as I realise there are others who have worse to contend with...since I retired 3 years ago back ache has become more of a problem with aching extending down my right leg ( a sort of mini-me sciatica ) , they say do more excercise but you can`t be jumping and bouncing around all day....the right leg thing really becomes a pain after about an hour on the bikes .........( after 40 years on the Mirage I`m now on a GS500 and a couple of R1`s )......thought a few times it might be worth trying something with a more feet forward riding position , but there`s no guarantee that would make for any improvement...and that`s not really my sort of thing anyway... so I`ll just put up with it ....As I said , shouldn`t moan really....( although it sounds like I just have ... )......
 
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When one did break I found if you jiggled the gear lever around you could find second ( low enough to pull away from a standstill...just , and then change up to third .....which would give a half reasonable cruising speed , , which would enable you to get home .......Just remember not to stray beyond those two gears...which would mean another stop to re-jiggle.....

When they break (which first happened as I rode my Jota home after buying it :rolleyes:), I find that its not much of a problem, as your foot can do the work of the return spring and gently return the lever to a central position. You have to ride like Fred Astaire doing a tap dance but all should be OK. Unless of course the broken bit of the springs gets wedged in somewhere and blocks movement... sods law and all that.
 
I must be lucky, both times it happened to me I still could get all 5 gears. And that was good as the 1st time I was 100ks from home and the latest I was probably 600ks. 3rd 4th and 5th were the same. 1st and 2nd needed the gear lever lifted like an up change and then down to get those 2. What I found was the as-fitted upper cranked spring leg had snapped at the bend leaving the straight leg doing all the work. I expect that cranked leg gets a stress riser when made and eventually that's where it snaps. Also lucky I had a big screwdriver big enough to spread the legs, so to speak but small enough to not block the spring to slide into place, it's a bit of a bastard to fit. Fingers crossed I haven't muffed it and still have 5 gears. It felt ok spinning the wheel and doing it by hand.
 
All the fractures I've ever had have looked like this one (pictured). There's usually decent warning it's on its way out. Flick the gear lever, with a finger, and it should snap back sharpish. If it flops back, fit a new one.

Gear lever return spring.jpg
 
Blimey. Maybe they don't make springs like they used to. My Jota has done about 100,000km and it still has the gear lever return spring that was fitted in the Breganze factory. It has the left gearchange crossover linkage, but I dunno whether that makes any difference to the life of the spring.
Perhaps the original factory springs are better than re-manufactured replacements.
 
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