2005 GS500F clutch issues - possibly

[Devaclis]

Hey peeps!  I have been looking up great info on this site for a long time now and need to say thanks for all of your help so far

Now, I am having issues with my wife's 2005 GS500F

Started last week.

Bike started to vibrate rhythmically and you could feel it through the tank.

At idle, you could hear a metallic clacking on the top end of the motor.

This weekend she took it for a short ride.  After a minute she was unable to get the bike into neutral with the motor running.

At a light she noticed that if the bike was in 1st and she had the clutch lever pulled in, the bike stalled.  It also wanted to move forward on her.  We thought right away this was a bad clutch.  Bike has 3k on it.

We took the clutch out last night and it is in VERY good condition.  Looks brand new.  No scoring on the steels and the friction plates have a lot of material left on them.  Springs also felt very good.  We replaced everything, topped off the oil and I started the bike up.

When I went to shift from Neutral to 1st it grinded hard.  Also from neutral to 2nd.  Now I am at a loss.  What the heck could it be?

[beRto]

Sounds to me like you have four issues:

1. Difficulty finding neutral
This is often caused by incorrect oil level. Check oil level with the bike on centrestand and the engine hot. Turn the bike off and give it a few minutes for the oil to settle. Do not screw in the oil dipstick when checking.

2. Metallic clacking at top end
May be normal (the GS does make some strange noises), or it may be in need of a valve adjustment. How many miles are on the bike? I think the service manual says this should be done every 4000 miles.

3. Rhythmic vibration in tank
Probably normal; it seems to be some kind of resonance from the tank and depends on the fuel level. In your case, this may be emphasized by valves out of adjustment, or imbalanced carbs. I experience this vibration effect around 4500 rpm when my tank is half full. I just top up and the vibration goes away.

4. Difficulty shifting (clutch ok)
You probably need to adjust the clutch. The main adjustment should be done at the clutch push rod, which is on the lower portion of the engine. You need to remove a cover plate and turn a screw. The fine tuning is done with the cable adjustment screws. You can probably find some photos on the forum if you search, but your best bet is to purchase a shop manual (Clymer or Haynes).

Good luck! Keep us posted

[Devaclis]

thanks a ton for the reply.

The bike has 3K miles on it.

All ofthese issues just started.  There was no clacking before.  No vibration before.  no issues shifting either. I did some research and see that I may need to adjust the clutch at the actuator arm so I will check into that. 

THIS is why I love this place

[ben2go]

Remember this.New cables stretch easier and more than seasoned cables.My bike was dropped before I bought it and it buzzed.The tank would get low on fuel and do it really bad.The tank bracket was slightly bent allowing the tank to ever so lightly touch the frame.Check the tank and make sure the gap is even all the way around.

[Devaclis]

Thanks!

This bike was laid down before we bought it so that could be an issue, although it did not act this way at all for 1k miles.

[ohgood]

Sounds to me like you have four issues:

1. Difficulty finding neutral
This is often caused by incorrect oil level. Check oil level with the bike on centrestand and the engine hot. Turn the bike off and give it a few minutes for the oil to settle. Do not screw in the oil dipstick when checking.

2. Metallic clacking at top end
May be normal (the GS does make some strange noises), or it may be in need of a valve adjustment. How many miles are on the bike? I think the service manual says this should be done every 4000 miles.

3. Rhythmic vibration in tank
Probably normal; it seems to be some kind of resonance from the tank and depends on the fuel level. In your case, this may be emphasized by valves out of adjustment, or imbalanced carbs. I experience this vibration effect around 4500 rpm when my tank is half full. I just top up and the vibration goes away.

4. Difficulty shifting (clutch ok)
You probably need to adjust the clutch. The main adjustment should be done at the clutch push rod, which is on the lower portion of the engine. You need to remove a cover plate and turn a screw. The fine tuning is done with the cable adjustment screws. You can probably find some photos on the forum if you search, but your best bet is to purchase a shop manual (Clymer or Haynes).

Good luck! Keep us posted

That list could be a sticky Nice !

[Devaclis]

Holy crap, you are awesome!  Thanks!!

You are right, this list could be stickied

[ajaxgs]

don't forget to check the oil on the centre stand !!!

[beRto]

So how did this turn out?

[Devaclis]

I am going to be working on this again in about 1 hour.  Been slammed and have not had time to put all of these great posts to good use.  I will follow up with pictures and full deatils once my troubleshooting has completed.  Thanks again for all of your help

[Devaclis]

ok, I adjusted the push rod, the intermiediate cable adjustment and the lever adjustment to 4mm.  The bike no longer grinds into gear, YAY!!

Checked the oul on the center stand while it was cold and it is halfway fro mthe Low and High indicator marks (without screwing the filler cap in)

I took the bike out for about 30 minutes and after it warmed up it started losing power, clutch in or out, in neutral or in gear.  I switched the fuel selector to PRI and the bike ran fine again (it is a llittle low on fuel so I will top it off tonight)

I brought the bike back intop the garage and let it run on the center stand at idle and listened to the top end of the motor.  There is random, small, knock that I cannot isolate.  It is not a clanking like a really loose valve.  I can't identify it.

We are going to take it out tomorrow for a good hour and ride it until it is wamed up then go to a parking lot and do some low speed maneuvers (in preperation for the Experienced Riders Course we are taking on Sunday) and make sure the clutch is all worked out and still running properly.

[Devaclis]

We spent a LOT of time on the bike performing low speed maneuvers on Sunday and the bike is running perfectly.  The experienced Riders Course had the wife running figure 8's, weaving, cornering, avoiding obstacles, and other fun stuff for about 9 hours.  The bike never overheated, the clutch never acted odd, and it ran fine all day in 85+ heat on hot blacktop. 

Thanks for all of the help guys

[beRto]

We spent a LOT of time on the bike performing low speed maneuvers on Sunday and the bike is running perfectly.  The experienced Riders Course had the wife running figure 8's, weaving, cornering, avoiding obstacles, and other fun stuff for about 9 hours.  The bike never overheated, the clutch never acted odd, and it ran fine all day in 85+ heat on hot blacktop. 

Thanks for all of the help guys

Great!