Frozen clutch, stuck in gear

Ok, well I did try to start the bike last night once I put in the ne
battery. Because the bike is in gear, the nuetral light will not com
on and the starter will not engage. Hitting the start button simpl
does absolutely nothing. I have tried rocking the bike to get it out o
gear and find neutral, no success. I tried jumping the bike, but after
year and a half of sitting, it probably wont start right away anyway. A
I said before, the clutch is hard to pull in, but everything seems to b
in pretty good shape. I am thinking that for whatever reason, my trann
is stuck in gear and maybe that is keeping me from having a nice, loos
clutch. I am thinking of taking it to the shop only because I don'
really know what to do. As I said, I cannot get it out of gear, eve
with the clutch in, so the bike won't start. When moving the bike, yo
have to hold the clutch in and it makes it slightly easier to push, bu
it is impossible with the clutch out. I guess I will try to take a loo
at the gears inside the tranny today and see if I can't find anythin
interesting (or broken).

Thanks for the help! (and the LONG reply...)
Bill

By the way, I don't know if this would make too much of a difference.
removed the cover directly in front of the chain where the clutch cabl
goes into. I saw the little device that it rotated to push the pushro
for the the clutch. With this cover off, the clutch felt great, s
maybe it is frozen in where that pushrod is? I don't know...I just wan
my baby running...

 

All of Suzuki's air/oil cooled engines share the same engine
architecture. I have a 1986 GSXR-750 shop manual here and the same
parts are used in my
GSXR as are in your Kan o' Tuna. The engine crankcases were built to
handle the power of the GSXR-1100, so they are robust and heavier than
a 600cc motorbike needs.

If you want to see some pictures of what I'm talking about, go to
www.partsfish.com and register. Select Suzuki motorcycles and you'll
see a list of all the Suzuki models. Scroll down to the GSX600 Katana
and you'll see a list of years. Select 1994. Then you can look at the
parts fiches for free.

You cannot see the transmission gears when you take the clutch cover
off.
You can see the clutch. If you remove the clutch, you can see the
shifter
mechanism.

The gear shift mechanism is on the GEAR SHIFTING fiche. The shifter
shaft has a sector gear on the end of it which meshes with another
sector gear on part #6 which is a ratcheting device that bolts to part
#5 that is the cylindrical shifter drum. That's what pushes the shifter
forks sideways to enage and disengage the gears. There are little
shifter pawls (numbers #7 and #8) that actually do the pushing on the
shifter drum. One of the shifter pawls might be stuck. That would be a
bitch, to have to go through a lot of hassle to get at a stuck pawl.

That ratchet device is just like the ratchet inside a mechanic's
ratchet wrench, but it's BEHIND the clutch.

On the other end of the shifter drum is part #23 which some people call
the shifter star. You cannot get at the shifter star from outside the
engine. The crankcases have to be split to get at it. Part #18 is a
detent device that holds the shifter star in whatever gear you shifted
the transmission into. It's possible for that detent arm with the
roller on the end to get hung up between gears. Having to split the
cases to get at the detent arm is a major crock of shit!

Yeah, I understand what you mean. You get used to having a motorcycle
that works right and it's a nightmare when it won't start.

My GSXR750 has a hydraulic clutch, so there's a slave cylinder located
in the place where you found the little rotating mechanical gizmo. Your
gizmo just a screw type device.

I don't know what kind of mechanic you are, whether you would think it
was a major operation to remove that clutch cover and maybe take the
bolts out of the clutch pressure plate so there would be no question
about whether the clutch stack is "frozen" as you suspect. That would
definitely "unfreeze" the clutch.

There are about 4 bolts in the pressure plate. If you remove those
bolts, you have to use brake cleaner to degrease the bolts and the
holes they go into before you put the bolts back in. If you try to
torque oily bolts, they will turn forever without making the torque
wrench click at the specified torque setting. You could ruin the clutch
inner hub if you try to torque oily pressure plate bolts. That would
cost major $$$$.

Once the pressure plate is removed, there is a big nut (about 1-1/4
inches) that holds the clutch hub onto the transmission main shaft.
Once the clutch is removed, you can get to the shifter pawls that might
be stuck.

Removing the whole clutch may be a major operation for you, I have no
idea about your mechanical skills, but you need a BIG breaker arm on
your ratchet wrench to loosen that nut. It's torqued on there at about
100 foot pounds. And you would need to stop the rear wheel from
turning. I would just stick a 2 X 4 between the swing arm and the rear
wheel spokes.

The other possibility is what I said yesterday. The starter clutch
might just be stuck, and if you pull that pin out that the reduction
gear turns on, you can try to turn the idler gear clockwise to see if
it breaks loose and if you can shift the transmission into neutral with
the reduction gear out of the way.

If you can get hold of a shop manual you just might want to study the
engine and transmission section very carefully before you take your
"Baby" down to the local $uzuki $tealer$hip and let those guys get
inside her.

 

So does this bike bike have a kick stand safety switch? Just a dumb
question.

Bryan

 

How much free play is there at the clutch lever? And, do you have any
information in your owner's manual about how to adjust the free play at
that clutch release mechanism you saw? There is an adjustment screw
there, according to the CLUTCH parts fiche. It would definitely help to
have the clutch release mechanism and cable adjusted correctly.
Typically, you would have about 1/16th of an inch of free play on the
cable.