Gearbox neutral adjustment

[hotfoothowell]

With my 3.5 Strada, it is exceedingly difficult to find neutral, almost impossible by foot, and quite hard by hand. Somewhat inconvenient! All the other gears have perfect selection. Can anybody advise how to adjust this? Thanks, Patrick

[mantaray]

Standing still or rolling ?
When rolling ---- shif to second gear and push down carefully

[Bison]

Clutch plates contaminated with a little oil causing the clutch to "drag" very slightly?. Might be worthwhile stripping the clutch and cleaning the plates?, wouldn't cost anything.
Alan.

[EVguru]

Morinis don't always have the best neutral selection, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Clutch drag can be an issue, but of course has no effect if the engine isn't running.

There's no easy adjustment of the gearbox. With a modified right hand engine case the position of the stop plate can be set, but that's really only an issue if the dogs are catching with the selector in neutral, rather than difficulty in getting into that neutral position.

Check that any shift linkage is free as friction will make things difficult. If it's a direct shift, the look for a bent shaft. If it's an early bike (pre 76 or so), then it may have Aluminium selector forks and these are more wear prone and can be bent by the heavy footed.

[hotfoothowell]

Thanks for the suggestion; the neutral is difficult to find, whether at standstill or moving, or when shifting from first or second gear. I'd welcome any other suggestions. Patrick

[danomar]

Mantaray is correct: Almost every bike (especially older Italian ones) is not much good about getting into neutral when standing still. I always try to shift into neutral while rolling to a stop.

If you are using the left-side changeover linkage(s), it will always be difficult. Tightening up any slack will help, but that is really only as far as it gets—a help, not a cure.

Switching to right-side shift changes everything.

Years ago, I replaced the center bronze bushing in the clutch basket with the updated plastic (Delrin? Teflon?) one. The improvement in shifting, including finding neutral, went from annoying to almost-modern-bike-normal.

HTH

[peterc]

If you are using the left-side changeover linkage(s), it will always be difficult.

Have to disagree with this in regard to the 350K2 model, the cross over is well designed and the shaft properly supported both ends so no reason to have unnecessary 'slack' in the linkage. Mine left change K2 is a very sweet shifter!

[SupermotoDave]

Have to agree, my lh gear shift Kanguru has a better shift than my rh shift Stradas, except it is on the wrong side
David

[MickeyMoto]

Just got the Excretia running and that shifts perfectly into neutral (especially now that the clutch is adjusted correctly and I have a cable with more than 6 strands..... Why do the left hand change bikes shift good, but the right hand ones not, as the gear shaft is in exactly the same place? Was anything changed in the gearbox on later bikes?