Hey everyone. All this great riding weather is motivating me to fix every single issue on each of my vehicles, and the next on my scope seems to be the bikes shift fork. Since i bought my f4 last summer, 2nd gear has always slipped while accelerating moderatly or hard. By doing some reading, this seems to be caused by excessive power wheelies which damage the shift fork. Based upon what i heard about the bikes 1st owner, this makes perfect sense to me. Nonetheless has anyone out there done a shift fork and is it something worth attempting? I am mechanically inclined, just not very experienced working on bikes (I just changed my plugs for the first time last weekend) Is this something a novice bike mechanic with a service manuel should attempt?

Just out of curiousity what would a shop charge for this? From what ive heard it could be near 1000 dollars. Thanks

 

Whats up man.
I just got done replacing my shift forks and some tranny gears.
Took the bike out today for the first time.... felt great.
Seems the guys who owned our orange and black bikes loved to beat on them.

You can definately do itwith alot of patience and a lil help from a friend.
Basically gotta take all the plastics off, the tank, the air box, the carbs, the radiator and exhaust.
Then you have to drop the engine... which is more like picking the frame up off the engine.
There is a good write up on how to drop the engine on the site, try to search for it.
Once you get the engine out, you'll have to remove the stator cover, starter, water pump and the flywheel.
The flywheel requires some special tools.
Then remove the clutch over, the clutch, the center clutchin and outer which need a special tool, then the oil pump.
Also will have to disconnect the cam chain.
I'm not sure if its necessary, but you can remove the oil pan as well.
Then you can get at the tranny and shift forks and drum.
Then do the opposite and get back on the road.
Till you get in the tranny you won't know if there is any damage to any of the gears.
Since I don't want to ever do this again, I replaced all the gears that the dogs showed wear.

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up.

Good luck.

 

Just did a 2/5 gear fix along with a shift fork on a 96 YZF-600R, which was a little different due to the fact that we had to break it down from the top, pulling off heads, cams, pistons, etc, etc... Now on the CBR I don't think you have to work top down, but you still need to pull the motor. On the Yamaha the suggested labor time for the whole job was 26 hours, which we shaved to about 13 or so of actual work. For the CBR I would think maybe claimed labor would be about 8-10 hours maybe, that is a guess. Case in point, do it yourself, save the money. Grab a couple of friends and make a weekend out of it. If not mechanically inclined, get it done. If you are anywhere near Minnesota, I would be willing to do the job for a decreased labor rate.....

 

Thanks for all the tips toaliosis. Chances are im gonna wait till college ends in a few weeksso i have time and a few friends around to help with the motor. I have the service manuel which has pretty good diagrams, but if i get stuck at least i know someone i can Message. Yea it must be something about the Orange and Black Paint combo which pushes riders to the edge on our bikes.
Smmi0501, thanks for the time estimate. Im down in NY so i think that might be a little far for you, but if you feel inclined totake a road trip let me know.

 

before you even start make sure you have the proper tools or you will be runing around all over looking for stuff that you probably won't find like I did. first youll need a 14mm allen key on a socket, a socket with notches in it youl know what i mean when you get to it i used a 1 1/4 socket and cut notches in it to take off the lock nut. then I had to make an allen out of a nut to take off the next part just get a bigger nut and use a bench grinder and shave each side down evenly till it fits and if the nut is thick enough you should be able to get a 21mm socket on it to turn it unless you can find a 21 mm nut or better yet find a snap on guy and special order a 21mm allen socket. follow the manual if you don't have one get one. when you get to the part about the stator fly wheel don't take it off it is ok it is attached to the crank and you don't need to touch the crank. make the tool in the manual for the cam chain tensioner and do what it says but don't have to take out the cam chain guilds the white one will come out with bottom engine caseing you do have to take off the clutch center use a 30mm socket and wind it off with an impact gun you probably won't get a tool good enough to do it how it says in the manual. I used old clutch plates and screwed them together to hold it, it kind of worked but the impact did all of the work. you have to replace that nut. I was told by a mechanic to use the impact to put it back on but I don't know I want to do that so i will keep you posted on how that works when i get my parts. good luck

 

Yeah, you can skip the part of removing the flywheel.
I just followed along the manual.

I like the idea of using the old cluth plates to hold the clutch center.
Just remembered I still had my old clutch plates too, oh well.
Be careful when un-staking the 30mm nut, don't want to mess up the threads on the shaft.

I have the small lock nut wrench and the holding tool for the CCT.
I replaced my CCT while I was doing this and kept the supplied one.
When you get to doing this, I can let you borrow them.

Its not a bad winter project.
You can do most of the work yourself, just will need help dropping/putting in the engine and lifting it.
Not sure I believe the 130lbs it says in the manual.

Here is a cell phone pic of my shift forks.

Keep us posted.

 

i couldn't get the 30 mm nut unstaked i tried everything so i just used an impact and didn't damage the threads.

 

I wish I had an impact gun