Clunking from gearbox at slow speeds.

[Xdiavel]

Hi all,

Everytime I feel I am getting the old girl spot on something else rears it's head.

This time after a very spirited ride the other night I noticed a clunking/knocking noise coming from down by my left foot when doing slow turns into roads ie 1st second gear corners,on and off the clutch.

The clutch feels like new and all gears work as expected, no jumping out etc.

At speed it feels great and cannot hear it, although wind and engine noise will prob cover it.

Now I put it on the centre stand and put it in first and let it run and it's surging and can hear the same clunking from the engine,

My friend did the same on his 1200 bandit and did the same thankfully so think it is the gears knocking under no load.

Does anybody else hear this when riding slow?

Had loud pipes on before and just put oem ones back on so its super quiet so not sure if that masked it.

One point to note is that the chain is pretty much stretched so needs replacing.

Bike has 9k mls and runs lovely. Just feel sick that there maybe a major issue with the gear box.

Regards

Lee

[Hooli]

It's probably a slightly sticky link in the chain clicking over the front sprocket, it's pretty common in my experience. Might be worth taking the clutch slave cylinder off & just checking the front sprocket is tight though, I've known a few come loose. They never fall off as the speedo trigger holds them in place.

[KiwiCol]

For some peace of mind on the gearbox, it'd be an extremely rare occasion that the 14 gearbox had serious issues. The early K2 (&K3?) had a 2nd gear issue but that was fixed for later models.  AFIK the gearbox is as bullet proof as the engine. 

[Xdiavel]

Thanks guys,

I have never witnessed a stuck chain link so unsure on the noise that makes.

But it is quite loud clunking that sounds like it's internal. But sound can be deceiving and hard to locate at times.

A bit like if you had the rear wheel off the ground and it was in gear but not running and turn the wheel you hit the stop then you get the clunk from the box.

[grog]

Mine once developed the loudest clunk/ noise you can imagine. I thought gearbox.Could hear it 100 metres away. Happened in a couple of days. Chain was problem, was hard to believe but it fixed it. I cut up old chain, just one link had actually rusted inside.Thats why i only use vmx gear oil now as lube.Hope its same prob for yours.

[Eric GSX1400K3]

I think chain as well. If you want to eliminate either chain or gearbox, you could slip the chain off the rear sprocket, then removing the slave cylinder, drop the chain off the front sprocket and run the engine after putting the slave cylinder back on.

A frozen link does make all sorts of weir noises.  Hope you get it fixed mate, love your perseverance.

[Kiwifruit]

Yep I'm with chain too. Mine did same while away in South Island. Anyway I'm spraying it with WD40 and it's cheered up. I'm not saying it's not worn out and needing replacement but not right at this moment. Be sure it's well adjusted. I find mine tightens up a lot as you torque up the axle nut.

[Hooli]

For some peace of mind on the gearbox, it'd be an extremely rare occasion that the 14 gearbox had serious issues. The early K2 (&K3?) had a 2nd gear issue but that was fixed for later models.  AFIK the gearbox is as bullet proof as the engine. 

And for the sake of this thread, that fault doesn't make a noise. It just means they fall out of second when you get on the power.

A chain issue on the front sprocket (it's the tightest turn the chain makes so it'll be loudest there) will resonate up the outputshaft & into the box so it can sound internal.

[Xdiavel]

Hi All,

Sorry for the late reply, as I am now in the middle of doing the Valve clearances, got the Cams out and just waiting on several shims to arrive. I did do the Stem seals last year so felt pretty confident to have a go myself but the nerves aren't any less, Especially when I had a very very close call with one of the PAIRS Dowel pins that fell off last time and fell down an oil drain and was balancing on a ledge. Just got it with an endoscope with a magnet. Was bricking it lol

This time it was the O Ring balancing on the very edge of the cam sprocket hole 

Anyhow. Thanks again all as it was indeed the Chain. I do have a new one to go on but re-adjusted the old one and gave it a good clean and didn't hear anything. It did scare me though lol.

[Hooli]

I've never known the clearances needing adjusting unless you've changed the cams.

Good news the noise is fixed though.

[grog]

Glad your noise gone👍When mine was noisy,was hard to believe how loud one link could be.

[Kiwifruit]

Agree Grog, I thought we had a big problem but once freed up all was quiet again.