Gears grinding

[Gisser]

I'd like to exhaust all posibilities b4 taking it apart. 

Goot.  Diagnostics is a process of elimination; let's not get ahead of ourselves

Starting in neutral with light hand pressure on the shift lever without going fully into 1st or 2nd gear, feels like gears are spinning and touching makes a metallic tat-tat-tat sound.  Once in gear the noise is gone and am able to fully run through all the gears.  Only exception is when I shift back into neutral with the clutch still held and shift into either 1st/2nd same sound/grinding occurs.
-Are these the dogs trying to engage into the windows?

Uh-huh.  The GSTwin is indeed a fully constant mesh tranny and some gears are spinning even in neutral, hence the grinding.  About the clutch, tho....

-Any chance clutch plates are sticking or going bad after sitting for 12yrs in same oil?

Clutch plates sticking   Overfilled crankcase   Cable needs more actuation dialed-in    What we do know is that  gears should not be spinning when the clutch is actuated with the  bike at a standstill.    If gears are grinding then your clutch is dragging.

This is not split the cases.  At worst, this is outpatient surgery, if that.

Thnx

[ATLRIDER]

I rode it about 60 miles yesterday and the trans shifted pretty slick as long as I was moving and seemed to grind a little less going into 1st/2nd but the problem still persists.  Tomorrow I have to ride 65 miles round trip and will hopefully have a chance to work on it.

If by chance it's the clutch plates, anyone have an idea how much that could run?

Thanks.

[ATLRIDER]

Update:
The pushrod adjustment was incorrect.  I had turned it in too far initially and therefore didn't back off on the adjuster enough to fully disengage the clutch. Initially I turned the adjuster in until it just touched the pushrod but apparently I went in a little too far. So I backed out the pushrod 1/2 turn instead of my usual 1/4 turn and the trans shifts nice now.

Thanks for the help and encouragement.

[fred]

Cool. I'm glad you figured it out. I always feel better when I finally figure out what a problem is. Even if it is something major, knowing what the heck is wrong beats having no clue...

[ATLRIDER]

Cool. I'm glad you figured it out. I always feel better when I finally figure out what a problem is. Even if it is something major, knowing what the heck is wrong beats having no clue...

Yep, I'll drink to that!

Found the problem by tinkering with the pushrod adjuster while the engine was running.  I started hearing the bearing (#14) b4 I felt any resistence on the adjustment screw.  At that point figured I'd messed up.