sm610 shift lever not downshifting in 2nd & 1st

[whizzard]

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Got a question about odd Husky SM610 behavior for ya. A bit about the bike, it's a 2008 Husqvarna SM610ie with ~50,000km on the clock (~31,000mi).

So I stop at an intersection and go to kick it down into first and it felt a little odd, like it didn't go into into gear. Sure enough the bike stalls and I have to spend a while messing around to get it into neutral while running, typical. Get up on the road again and play a little with shifting from 3rd down, because of what happened, and sure enough the shift lever just seems to bottom out when I got to 1st.

However the funny thing is that if I lift the shifter with the side of my boot a bit and then down again I can shift, well manually sort of down through 2nd and 1st. Saves having to wind it out so much in 3rd at the lights.

The shift lever doesn't return to it's neutral position and instead seems limp and then bottoms out with first. It's missing that little spring in it's step when you push down. This also happened in second and seems to be downshifting in general at this point. Up shifting is fine through all gears.

I have yet to open the side case but will be doing so shortly. Oh and the oil was changed about 5000kms ago (10w-60 BO full synthetic).

In the mean time if anyone else has had this happen I would love to hear about it and any causes. More to come as it unfolds.

Thank you all and other than this it really has been a very fun ride and every day is never too much!

 

[EricV]

However the funny thing is that if I lift the shifter with the side of my boot a bit and then down again I can shift, well manually sort of down through 2nd and 1st.

This makes me ask the question of if you've removed the shifter from the shaft to inspect the splines of the shaft, and also inspect the serrations on the inner diameter of the shifter clamp? I'm hoping it'll be something that simple- sometimes the splines or serrations (or both) wear and you get what you're experiencing. Keep us posted-

Eric

 

[whizzard]

Thank you for the suggestions, I have wiggled the pedal quite a bit looking for play but haven't had it off yet, I will definitely be giving the pedal splines and shaft splines a good look. I don't think that will be the case though as there is no play of the pedal independent of the shaft. Fingers crossed though.

 

[Theo]

if I lift the shifter with the side of my boot a bit and then down again I can shift (....)
The shift lever doesn't return to it's neutral position and instead seems limp and then bottoms out with first. It's missing that little spring in it's step when you push down. This also happened in second and seems to be downshifting in general at this point. Up shifting is fine through all gears.

Here is what happens when you move the lever:

Maybe that spring is broken and so you can upshift as usaully because the lever returns down due to the gravity, while when you downshift you need to lift it to its neutral position.

 

[Motosportz]

Maybe that spring is broken and so you can upshift as usaully because the lever returns down due to the gravity, while when you downshift you need to lift it to its neutral position.

Yep, this happened on a bike to me before too. The spring somehow had got past the pin it rests on.

 

[whizzard]

Thank you all for the quick replies. I have my fingers crossed and will triple check everything.

 

[whizzard]

Wellp, after some delay in getting the clutch hub removed (a big thank you to Logan S for the excellent quick CAD work and piloting the laser cutter). Pulling the clutch basket revealed the usual... smashed cup washers we'll see about that later. Though I didn't have to pull the clutch to find that out. Underneath nothing was visibly damaged and I pulled the bits off the outside of the drum. Funny little mechanism with the clicks.

 

[whizzard]

Pulling the shift shaft/pawl assembly revealed an oddly shaped return spring, but still functioning. I pulled the spring off and spread it a bit with my fingers and it snapped in two. Hopefully that explains the shifting issues with 2nd and 1st.

Now onto the cup washers... looks like a bigger freshening up than I thought!

PS- Big thanks to Barry F. for lending the big torque wrench!

 

[whizzard]

Just a quick update, had a friend with a lathe so we cut up some replacement washers as Kiwiland is a bad place to buy them. Silvers steel hardened and tempered by propane torch. Now to find some rivets...

Anyone out there have dimensions for the rivets?

More pics to come, unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me for the lathe work, but it was relatively straight forward after guesstimating the thickness of the washers. In the end we went with 2mm thick washers.

 

[Theo]

Here are the dimensions of one of my spare rivets:

The 15 mm have been got with a ruler and the other measurements with a caliper.

 

[whizzard]

You da Man Theo! Just what I need. With luck I can get some from a local fastener shop down unda.

Then onto the re-assembly (with a quick check of the CCT and tensioner before sewing anything back up.

More pics to come as it goes. I can't wait to have my dog back!

 

[whizzard]

Well, the conclusion to this part of the story is the Clutch is back together and doing well. New cup washers and rivets and pretty straightforward re-assembly.

The shifting problem of the bike not wanting to go into 1st and 2nd was fixed by replacing the shift return spring (and from the way it snapped under a little finger pressure, it's good I caught it fast).

Everything is good in the world right... so I though until decided to pull the left case cover. I had a look at the reed valve and auto-CCT and the cam chain is pooched. The reed valve is on it's last leg and the CCT was at 12 clicks and that chain was floppin'.

Grrrrrr.... not surprising given the age of the bike but very annoying since the dealer that maintained it swore that it was fine with no issues.

Yet another SM610 experience added to the litany of age related issues these bikes have.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but my enthusiasm has been somewhat dulled of late with the unending small problems I have had since I bought the thing. I still love it I just want to be able to ride with out fear of it imploding.