Motorcycle Repair: 73 CB350F stuck in neutral, clutch side, clutch springs

Question
Hi Bill,

As you can tell by the email title, my beloved 73 CB350F has become stuck in neutral. After several minutes of trying, I was able to get the gears to engage again to get home. When I parked the bike(and put it back in neutral) it would not budge out of neutral as much as I tried.

I recently changed the oil and oil filter. Everything else seems to be running fine. (the engine is fine) The only major difference of late is that I was running the bike in hot weather the last few days.(100+ degrees) But I have done that before without incident.

Any suggestions as to what the problem could be? I am basically at a total loss as to what it could be.

Any help would be appreciated.

David Henning  

Answer
David, I don't think that an oil change and even hot weather would cause the shift mechanism to fail.

Start at the lever, first. Be sure that it is tight on the splines. Then, we have to consider the shifter shaft. Has the bike "tipped over" on the left side recently? The shift lever often transfers the impact to the shaft, which bends and binds in the outside cover, causing the shaft not to return.

If this is all okay, then you will probably have to go into the clutch side of the motor, which requires removal of the clutch assy. Fortunately, this is easier on the 350F than the 400F. Once the clutch springs are released, then there is just a snap ring that holds the clutch hub onto the transmission shaft. Pay attention to the order of the parts as you disassemble them.

Behind the clutch assy, is the shift mechanism. From what you describe, there several possibilities for problems..

The bolt backed out of the end of the shift drum, which retains the shift drum stopper plate and the shift rollers. Everything pretty much stops functioning when this happens.

Other possibilites are the retaining bolts for the detent rollers backing out or the spring that keeps the shift selector arm in place may have broken.

You will need a new gasket and seal for the clutch cover, more oil and whatever is damaged, loose or missing inside.
GET A SHOP manual before you dive in, though. They should be available on Ebay or www.motorcyclememories.com and elsewhere on the web.

It isn't brain surgery, but it helps to have some mechanical expertise and good tools to do this repair. If the above description sounds like a foreign language, the find someone you can trust to do the repairs.

These bikes are generally pretty good to about 50k miles, then stuff starts to wear out and it gets expensive to repair them, if you can find the parts and more so if you have to have someone else to do the work. www.westernhillshonda.com is a good source of parts for the older machines or try Ebay or the www.vjmc.org site.

While the engine is the basis for the CB400F, there are a lot of changes on the new model, so all the parts do not necessarily interchange, if you find a parts bike somewhere. A shop manual and parts manual will be valuable references for you.

Bill Silver