Detent spring, or trans update?

dbutton12

.060 Over
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
161
Location
upstate NY
Ride
2008 R3T
Hello all! Had the 08 R3T out for her spring shakedown run and am depressed. About 35-40 miles into the ride, coming into a shallow turn, I downshifted to 4th and as it deceled it slipped into neutral. I thought nothing of it, assuming I hadn't given it a positive kick. It happened repeatedly during the next 40 miles. The other symptoms that seemed to develop at the same time are: Impossible to find neutral, except by accident. Neutral seems to be just about anywhere now. 2nd and 3rd both hop out but not like 4th. This all developed suddenly and without warning. I maintain my own bike and the most serious problem I have had in the past 26k miles is the clutch pivot shaft at about 10k miles. I hear much talk about the "upgrade kit" for the trans, but I had always thought that by 08 the issues were fixed?? The detent spring also seems common, and matches the sudden development of this problem. Any ideas?
 
Others who know more will be along to explain, but heres a little hope: From what I've seen on the forum if you needed the upgrade kit you would have needed it about 16k miles ago. The problems that we're associated with the weaker parts that the kit repaired tended to manifest around 10k.
 
I'd check the detent spring first just read your message. Your bike should be fully updated which is why I would check the spring first. It can be scoped so you can get away with just draining the coolant and pull the pump. Go up through there with the scope and see if the spring is still good and mounted. I used a cheap Harbor Freight scope on the picture below. It looks clearer on the screen for the operator.

2008 Touring bikes were some of the first in a rash of broken detent springs. If the transmission jumps out of fourth gear, my friend found keeping his foot down on the shifter kept it in gear while he took her home. If it's not the detent well you can then decide whether to keep going or put her back together for a dealer. If it's the detent spring we'll say 5 hours work for a first timer.
 
When my detent spring went out on my 08 touring, the symptoms were the same as yours
 
Steel said:
If the last 6 numbers of your Vin are higher than 337294 then it's an updated bike.
Click to expand...
No that's for Standard and Classic models. There was never a update kit for the Touring as they were supposed to have everything already done. And to be honest other than the detent spring I don't recall hearing of any that had transmission problems. Lately it's more Roadsters than anything.
 

OK, Thanks guys! I'll let you know soon. Won't have any time to diagnose or work on it 'til next weekend. Meanwhile I'll do a little research on just how to get at it. I see there are several posts in reference to the detent spring replacement.
 
Search for any post done by @idk - he has a instructional PDF file in his signature for changing it. Scoping to see if it needs changing was a way I came up with to prove a dealer could check it first before pulling the engine out to split it open. Funny thing is the dealer learned something.
 
1K9 said:
Was there a happy ending to this shifting control failure?
Click to expand...
As Warp mentioned, his buddy suffered with it a while before fixing and that is exactly what I intend to do. It won't be torn apart until this fall and I will do the timing chain and guides at the same time. I have found that if I rest my foot gently down on the shifter after a downshift that it will not hop out. Not an ideal situation, but I will suffer through the summer with it and let everyone know when it actually comes apart for the fix.
 
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