Motorcycle Repair: My moto wont go into neutral, shively, tear down

Question
Dear Mark,
I have a crappy Honda 82 cm450e, I bought for 100 bucks..it ran just fine until recently it stalled and than I could not get it to go into neutral in order to crank it back up again.  When I tried to put it into to first(before clicking back down into to neutral)the OD light comes on signaling me that the bike is in 6th gear.  Soo I when I click up with toe once the OD light comes on..from there I can click down once..twice and from there can only come back up.  In response to this I began ripping everything apart trying to find the problem.  I played with the cam plate trying to manually move throught the gears and try to find neutral and this was a no go.  At this point Im stuck...I'm not sure if I should continue measuring springs and plate and do the proper maint and put it back together(like the manuals say) or rip out the bearing behind the cam plate and keep digging.  If you have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.

Thank you,
JC

Answer
Hi JC,

Try cycling through the gears while rotating the rear wheel very slowly by hand. This gets the transmission rotating. Sliding gears moves more freely when everything is in motion.

Otherwise, I'd need to inspect the CM to accurately diagnose the problem(s).

You may have to perform a tear-down inspection to diagnose the problem(s).

Respectfully,
Mark Shively