Something is screwed with my drive train

fnfalman · Post by **fnfalman** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 9:53 am

It just happened this morning and left me on the side of the road. I'm still waiting for the dealerships to open right now to see which one I'm going to get the bike towed to.

Everything was normal until I hit a stretch of highway and tried to shift to 5th gear. It felt like I got a false neutral but it didn't want to shift up or down. Then the tranny makes this horrible scratching noise, so I coasted to the side of the road and shut the bike off. Put it on the center stand to see if anything's wrong. Can't see anything obvious, so turned the bike on again. Can't find neutral at all and the shifts are now totally vague. I don't know what gear I'm in if any. Revving the engine up and it starts to make some godawful noise like something is trying to spin the drive shaft but not catching.

Not good.

fnfalman · Post by **fnfalman** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:32 am

Just talked with my Guru. Clutch is done for. He knew exactly what the problem was and even made the same noise to describe it.

So now we'll go pick the bike up and take it to his shop. He even said that the clutch is weak on these bikes and it wasn't unusual to have it gone out even earlier than 30,000miles (which is where I'm at).

thenewcamus · Post by **thenewcamus** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:20 am

Sorry to hear about this, hopefully the guru gets you back on the road and shifting tight pronto.

I'm curious if you had any warning signs, like clutch slipping etc? On mine it sometimes feels like the clutch is taking longer than it should to engage or disengage, wondering if I'm headed for the same situation.

tbologne · Post by **tbologne** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:52 am

Sorry to hear that dude. That bites!!! You were probably on your way to work too?

Curious to know what the cost will be for new clutch.

My '03 Rock has difficulty going into 2nd or 1st gear when gearing down, at times. I pull the clutch lever in but it won't go down into 1st or 2nd sometimes, not often. Wondering if I'll be needing a new cluctch as well.

Anything else damaged?

T

fnfalman · Post by **fnfalman** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 9:14 am

tbologne wrote:Sorry to hear that dude. That bites!!! You were probably on your way to work too?

Curious to know what the cost will be for new clutch.

My '03 Rock has difficulty going into 2nd or 1st gear when gearing down, at times. I pull the clutch lever in but it won't go down into 1st or 2nd sometimes, not often. Wondering if I'll be needing a new cluctch as well.

Anything else damaged?

T

My guru has gone to Laguna Seca but when we picked it up, he cranked the bike over and listened to the engine and fiddled with the gears. He thinks that it's either the clutch is blown or the main shaft drive is broken.

There were no hints at all such as clutch slippages. It just happened. As far as having difficulty going into 2nd from 1st, that happened to me when the bike isn't fully warmed up. The old BMW tranny wasn't all that great. The new ones are better but still not quite where they're suppose to be.

But to be honest, my Rockster sees some rough riding in the mere 30,000 miles. I hit the twisties pretty hard so that's not too easy on the tranny. I commute everywhere with it, and in Southern California, the traffic is terrible. Splitting lane while riding the dry clutch doesn't help.

BMW really needs to do something about the tranny. Make it a wet clutch and put in a modern tranny.