When I was flushing the sump on the old XL350, I retrieved what looks disturbingly like one of the dogs/lugs off one of the gears.
Third gear seems to be absent. First and second work fine, followed by an upshift to a nice wide false neutral, then fourth.
Presumably if one is snapped off and there's no gear engagement, the other two are also AWOL, and haven't surfaced from out of the crankcase. Don't think I'll ride it anymore until I can find the other pieces, would be a real bummer if they dislodged and broke more stuff.
How in the world would you shock-load third gear sufficiently to break the dogs off?? Trying to bumpstart the bike in third with something mechanically preventing the engine from turning (like a cylinder full of water)? Or maybe the opposite; running balls out in third and suddenly preventing the rear wheel from rotating freely (broken and jammed-up chain)?
You might be able to fish the other two out with a magnet on the end of a coat hanger. But, yeah, you probably don't want those things bouncing around in there. I would guess downshifting would put a heavier load on it, or shifting it without the clutch, maybe. I think that thing is coming apart.
Well all the guts look good aside from this. Bore looks good, piston and rings look good, bearings look good. Managed to snap a high-torque case bolt off way up in the upper case, so I need to fish that out before I put it all back together.
Oh, and find the other two broken-off pieces.
Is that one of those "common oil" bikes? Where the trans and motor oil are all in the same sump? Did you check your oil filter?
In reply to Dr. Hess :
It is. Has a screen for big chunks and centrifugal "filter" for finer sediment. The two missing bits aren't in either. They may have come out on earlier oil change, or they may still be in the sump somewhere.
Third gear is actually the most abused gear in any bike transmission. It's the most common failed gear barring any model-specific design flaws.
Time that people spend in 3rd gear is usually aggressive time, especially in the dirt. First is for plunking, 5th is for cruising. When terrain changes a lot, it's a bunch of 2-3-4, 4-3-2, 2-3, 3-2. These older four-strokes with a bunch of compression braking really do a number on gears on the street and since this is an XL it probably saw street action.
In reply to GCrites80s :
Huh. I was thinking more freak accident than just routine wear and tear, but that makes a certain amount of sense.
Well in your situation with how severely they're broken off, yes. But as far as just wearing out the dogs, 3rd (and to a lesser degree 2nd and 4th) is the winner.
