Upcoming FD Failure?

[Stormrider]

I took my annual after Thanksgiving Day ride yesterday. A mere 230 mile loop in the 37 degree weather. Cool & crisp with beautiful fall colors all around. However, I did miss one thing many times.....5th gear! I would upshift and the engine would sometimes over-rev (8000+ RPM) and show show nothing in the gear indicator. I would have to re-shift up or down to correct the problem. It happened more than once on my ride.

Any thoughts to as why this would happen?

For backround I have a '07 RT with 13,231 miles on the clock.

[Fran]

This has happened to me on occasion, more so in colder weather, especially when wearing a much clunkier touring boot (Spidi Canyon), as a result I have always attributed it to rider error, due to the lack of feel provided by the big boot. Just my thoughts.

Frab

[bobbybob]

Glad you posted this--was starting to worry about my 07 RT. The exact same thing has happened twice to me. I'm not sure if I was shifting a little too slowly or what, but it was def. the 4th to 5th gear change, and the gear indicator was blank. That was a couple months ago--mine has 9500 miles. Since yours does it also, I gonna assume it's just a sporadic quirk.

[drzep]

I don't think it has anything to do with the FD.

[AdventurePoser]

Glad you posted this--was starting to worry about my 07 RT. The exact same thing has happened twice to me. I'm not sure if I was shifting a little too slowly or what, but it was def. the 4th to 5th gear change, and the gear indicator was blank. That was a couple months ago--mine has 9500 miles. Since yours does it also, I gonna assume it's just a sporadic quirk.

 

Had this happen rarely on my 02 R1150RT as well. I attributed it to a quirk...

 

Ride on,

 

Steve in So Cal

[bimmers]

just a short shift it happens between 1st ans 2nd as well. You can also at times get a false neutral even.

No worry just make sure you are alert and not in need of power when it happens.

 

h

[duckbubbles]

If the transmission continues to do this at random intervals, especially if it is the same gear all the time, there could be a developing transmission problem.

 

A couple of months ago, I got my ST out of the shop after the transmission was repaired. It had been giving me problems in fourth gear only. Sometimes when shifting up into fourth, it would back shift into third by itself. It did this intermittently for several thousnad miles and I had it in the shop twice before with a "could not duplicate" response. Finally, instead of back shifting, it would go into a false neutral. I knew it was getting worse so I put it in the shop again. This time they took it apart and replaced the shift drum, pawls, fourth and third gears. It is fixed now and I can feel the difference when shifting.

 

Frank

[Stormrider]

Thanks for the responses!

 

I will continue my quirky shifting and stop worrying about the dreaded FD failure.

[HenWin]

Have you tried "pre-loading" the shifter? That is putting some pre-shift pressure on it before you shift. My 12RT is brand new, and I find it makes shifting much easier. Same thing is true when I'm just starting out. I put some down pressure on the shifter and as I let the clutch out, it slips right into gear.

[Dave58]

I have an 07 RT that I got new 7 weeks ago. It did the same thing when I first drove it. It had not did this for awhile now but when I road it a couple weeks ago (with 1800 mi on it) it did it again. It seems to happen when I make a "lazy shift" but only when going from 4th to 5th. It seems worse when I preload the shifter. Wants to jump into 5th before I pull the clutch in.