I was unsuccessful in contacting anyone at FourStrokeWorks all week... And I couldn't wait any longer to put my bike back together so...

It turns out that our shift stars are significantly different from a KLX300. Well - it's just this little dowel pin that aligns the neutral sensor shaft - which I guess the 300 doesn't have... It had the pin on the FSW shift star, but it was roughly 120 degrees out of alignment with the stock 250 star. Otherwise they were pretty close to identical.

I took some measurements with my vernier calipers and it seems like my stock star gear was 1 or 2 mm larger in both the peaks and valleys. Not that it really matters much to the shifting... But I could see what the idea was with the modded star. Make the sides of the hills steeper, sharpen up the peaks so that the roller won't sit on the peak. As long as the centers of the valleys remain in the same position, the shape of the peak is not that important, but it does make for a different "feel" when shifting.

So I took it upon myself to star grinding away the stock star gear on my trusty $40 bench grinder... Wasn't so hard. It's really not rocket science, the star just makes a shaft spin, which changes the gears. The valleys have to stay in the same spot to make sure it goes into gear properly.

So I put er back on, buttoned up the case, filled up the oil and went for a ride.
(By the way, I left the dowel on the roller spring, which increases the spring tension - the dowel came with the FSW kit).

Damn! It felt better than the FSW shift star! I really like the shifting now. It's not notchy at all, just a more positive feeling shift, and no false neutrals yet... So I'm happy that my bikes happy again... A little ticked about the FSW star, but oh well, hopefully Jerry will take it back and refund my money (it was $85). I don't know if he's on holidays or what, but the phone message at his shop sounds like business as usual.

Sorry guys, I know...
[sm=ttiwwp.gif]

But I was just too focused on gittin er done to be takin pictures.
These are the older pics that show the FSW star mounted on the bike, with the stock star in front of it.
But sorry, no pics of my grinding job... Trust me - it was beautiful!

 

Oh, yeah... What I meant to say somewhere in that incoherent babble, is that this is really not a bad DIY job...
Don't ask me where to get that little dowel for the roller spring though... Be creative!
But the grinding was pretty easy.

Sorry Jerry (at FSW)! Not meaning to take away business or anything, but I don't think your star works for us 250's anyways!

 

Hey Kawi Wawi - glad you got it sorted out. After reading about the star shifter on FSW, I couldn't help but think what a great idea it was. Sounds like you reaped all the benefits and then some by your mods to the stock shifter. Successful mods like that feel great - there's nothing like taking control and solving your own issues. I hope FSW does right by you. My carb is still on order with them and last I heard it will be still be a few weeks before I see anything.

 

Great job Jason well done, you do however need a decent camera or you need to learn how to use it lol

 

just so i have this straight before i do it. your ONLY grinding the sides of that one valley right. NOT the peak or the valley just the sides so that those two peaks are sharper. is that about right???

 

Ok what is the point to do this? Having troubles shifting?

 

The point of this mod is to avoid the false neutrals that were happening to me a lot.
My bike would hit "neutral" sometimes between 1st to 2nd, or 2nd to 3rd, or even 3rd to 4th.
What actually happens is that the shift star only rotates part way, and the roller gets stuck on a peak instead of a valley.

You want to modify two things for this mod:
- change the shape of the star so that the peaks (all of them) are sharper
- increase the spring tension on the roller arm

Inside the shifter cover, the little spring and roller is pressing against the shift star.
The two forks attached to the shift shaft cause the star to rotate, which changes the gears.
Each "valley" on the star represents a gear. The "special" tooth in the picture above is neutral (the small valley).

Remove the shift star and use a bench grinder to shape the teeth so that there is less chance of the roller getting stuck on the peak of each point. (The stock points are sort of rounded, so make them sharper).

The shift star kit from FSW also comes with a small metal dowel that you put over the spring to cause greater spring tension on the roller. This is supposed to improve the positive engagement of the roller into each detent on the star.

You've read the write up on planet KLX right?
Planet KLX - Shift Star Fix

 

i have now. i couldn't get to that page earlier. thanks that anwered all my questions.