I cannot emphasize enough - IF YOU INSTALL THE MSR STEEL SHIFT LEVER, YOU ARE GIVING UP A WEAK LINK THAT CAN PREVENT BREAKING OTHER PARTS!!!

At a race track that is just a short push away from your truck, it is good insurance against breaking or bending the stock lever... if you ride in the back country a great distance from your truck or other help, you may want to reconsider.

The short story (detailed in its own post from Aug 2015 - sorry if you read this already - but worth repeating) is that 30+ miles out of Ellensburg on the WABDR, I had a pretty gentle but sudden low-side "off" on the left side of the bike. The MSR shift lever grabbed the ground between the left and right grooves of the two track we were on and sheared the shift shaft off the motor at the crankcase, just outside the oil seal, leaving nowhere to grab with a vice grip. The upward impact bent the pin discussed above also, leaving the tranny locked in 3 or 4th gear, ending my ride.

Once inside the motor, not only had that pin bent upwards severely, but the mounting boss in the main engine case was deformed upwards in that same direction (no visible cracking), badly enough that when a new (straight) pin was installed, the pin still pointed slightly towards the 1:00 o'clock position, preventing the new shift mechanism from being able to move far enough in the downshift direction to get first gear.
Faced with splitting the case to replace the left side case, I did some creative grinding and removed enough material from one side of the pin to allow the shift mechanism to work properly. Not an ideal fix, but a fix that has held up for a year and about 2,500 more miles. (2,500 miles that included the successful completion of the WABDR in Aug of 2016!)

My theory - a pretzeled shift lever is still a shift lever. A strong steel shift lever attached to the stub end of your shift shaft, lying on the trail, is far less useful... as my kid says; "Just sayin'..."

 

Sure, I agree on keeping the stock steel shifter. But, has anyone's spring become dislodged? Maybe my experience was a fluke, but it happened again, I would be SOL without the right tools.

 

This has never happened on my bike, nor have I read of anyone else who has had it happen to them - you must just be lucky!

TC

 

Thanks for this!

 

Was reviewing the thread about the shift stop stud bending. My issue was slightly different in that I had a problem with 5th and 6th gear jumping in and out. Took the easiest method of repair, that of swapping out the stud, and it appears that may have solved the issue although time will tell. From the photos of work, noticed that there has been a design change in the neutral switch, my 2019 model has one that has a stud sticking out and wire end has a female connector that fits over it. I had some problems earlier where the bike wouldn't start in gear even with clutch lever depressed, so don't know if contact wasn't secure or not. But after replacing the stud and putting the wire connector back on the switch I had my start in gear ability for the first time. Seems this is more vulnerable to being pulled off.