Knackered gearbox

hi there

I have an early 2004 rocket 3, 15K miles. I've been having problems with it jumping out of third, or not being able to get it into third, particularly under hard acceleration. On Thursday I tried to upshift at 50 or 60 and it wouldn't go in at all. Around the same time it started rattling like a box of jagged spanners. Now it will go into 1st and 2nd but nothing else. It sounds awful even in those gears, grinding and tinkling like jagged metal.

There are no obvious holes or leaks of oil anywhere. I've been reading threads about bits of the box getting into the engine. Is this possible? I drove it slowly about a mile following the incident.

It's not under warranty and I have been quoted anywhere between 2.5 hours and 12 hours plus parts. Is this reasonable? Is it worth having the box upgraded to the latest parts/kit while its off?

Realistically, what sort of money am I looking at? The dealer charges £72 ukp per hour plus parts!

Best
Dude

Going by the noise you said it is making it will be worth while doing the upgrade while it is stripped apart, 15000miles on a seven year old bike someone needs some jail time for motorbike abuse.

15,000 miles? wow, are you sure that rattling isn't rust??

Sorry, couldn't help it. Sorry for your problems, sounds bad. If you like the bike it sounds like you have to bite the bullet and let them tear it down. My best advice is to find the right people to do it, look and ask around for someplace you can trust to not bend you over.

Good luck.

BigLebowski said:

It's not under warranty and I have been quoted anywhere between 2.5 hours and 12 hours plus parts. Is this reasonable? Is it worth having the box upgraded to the latest parts/kit while its off?

Realistically, what sort of money am I looking at? The dealer charges £72 ukp per hour plus parts!

Best
Dude

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It can be very hard to say until they get into it,even 12 hrs might be optimistic.
Ask if you can inspect it yourself once its stripped down so you know the extent of the damage.

Hey, my 04 has just turned over 9k miles! Since I put on six since getting it last spring, this looks to be a record year.

Sorry about your gearbox woes, and I hope it turns out minor. I doesn't sound good though.

I have read about this notorious 3rd gear slip-out problem elsewhere, both on this site and the r3owners.com site.
What I learned was that on several early model R3's, there is a set of bolts inside the transmission (2, I think) that simply needed to be cleaned and re-installed with Red Loctite thread-locking compound.

The cruelty of this operation is that complete removal and disassembly of the motor is required to get to these bolts.

I've had many motorcycle transmissions in pieces on my workbench, but never the R3. If this incident were to happen to me, I'd attempt stripping the transmission without removing the engine from the bike. A lot of good mechanics have found ways to do things MUCH quicker than factory repair manual's suggested routes. This could be the reason you're hearing such a wide range of time requirements for the repair.

Are you good with tools?

hi there,

The engine/motor was removed and third gear is bust. Plus a few other bits damaged with pieces flying around. The cost will be £2180 UK pounds (3,577 USD)
Luckily they claim to have found all swarf and there is no engine damage. The labour charge is 60 UKP per hour and they've said 15 hours. The engine/motor is in great condition and you can still see the honing marks, even after 15K miles.

I'd be interested in any threads re. third gear weaknesses to try and get some help from the Triumph factory on parts discounts.

The question is, do I sell when it gets back? Will it break again shortly or in a few months' time? I am planning a road trip around Europe and I am now worried about taking it.

Best
Dude

Johns right as most the tranny problems were with second gear not third. Frocket3 is the only Captian I know of right off hand that has broke third gear and he is repairing it himself. Good luck and if the technitians are good you should be alright.

I've replaced broken gears in two other transmissions in the past. Neither were an R3, but the R3 uses the same cassette-type tranny with a spool shifter.

One of them had the shift dogs (the little tabs that extend off the side of the gear that mates it to another beside it upon sliding, via a shift fork) broken off of it from trying to push start the bike and dropping it into gear harshly without the clutch.

The other bike had the 2nd and 3rd gear sets destroyed into crumbled bits that were laying in the bottom of the engine case. Somehow the shift mechanism was able to allow a partial engagement of the 2nd and 3rd gear simultaneously, causing them to fight each other -locking up the transmission.
I straightened the bent primary and countershafts, replaced the gears, straightened two bent forks, checked for engine case cracks, and reassembled.
The bike shifted like butter after that.
The only cause I could imagine was poor machining tolerances on one or multiple parts.
This comes to mind when I realize that many of our Rocket3's parts are made in Thailand -a place not known for industry and manufacturing.

Unless your engine cases were machined wrong, housing the tranny parts off their precise location, I'd have to believe the error was either in the replaced parts or operator mistake.

El Duderino

BigLebowski said:

hi there,

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Best
Dude

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Just have to say I love the username. One of my favorite all-time movies. Sorry for your troubles, hope you get many good miles out of her after the repair.

The Dude Abides...