My two, first-gen. B12's both showed a sticky / sluggish shifting condition.
I tried a few fixes, including going to heavier oil (20W-50), and replacing all the "outer" shifting components that I could reach.. shift-shaft and pawl assembly. I checked the clutch plates and all... nothing worked.
THEN, I was rebuilding the clutch in my older B12, with 37,000 miles.. and I noticed a faily heavy notching on the inner edges of he clutch basket, where the plates contact. I read in my (new) Haynes manual that "excessive notching of these surface areas can cause sluggish, slow shifting"... and that the aluminum edges could be dressed "a little" with a flat file.
I took my time and filed all 20 contact edges as much as I dared.. I didn't want to remove too much), and finished re-asssembly.
WOW. Today I had the bike out for the first time, and what a difference! MARKEDLY smoother shifting, both up and down. Not utterly slick like some Honda boxes (I don't think any Bandits trannies would be THAT good)... but VERY much improved!
One Suzuki tech at my local shop said, yeah, that notched-basket thing happens with a lot of bikes, ...especially sport bikes that are getting beat-on. He reckons you can dress the basket once or maybe even twice... but if there is too much play between the plate tangs and the basket edges, the basket will wear ever faster, as the tangs will slam into the edges harder.
Well, for now, anyway, I'm a happy camper..and will do the same fix to my "better" B12.
Topic: Sticky-shifting problem solved! (Read 2227 times)