Extremely noisy 4th gear

[Nacho]

Hi there, friends.

I am a little bit worried about something that happened to my bike yesterday.

I went for a ride with a friend of mine and we did a short but very relaxing 30 miles trip driving not faster than 60 miles per hour. Everything was just perfect but in our way back to home, my 99 Venture started to make a strange noise every time I engaged the 4th gear. This 4th gear has been a little bit noisy since I bought the bike in 1999, but nothing special. Dealer always said to leave that way because it was just its normal noise.

But yesterday, the noise was so loud and ugly that I avoided to use that gear. At the beginning I thought the noise was coming from the drive train or cardan but since it only appeared in the fourth gear I started to think the is came form the gear box (that's the way we call in Spanish, sorry if it is not the same in English).

I have asked a couple of friends and they all think that my 4th gear pinion is more likely to be worn out (very old, chafed, ...). The bike has 79,000 miles, all done by myself and oil changes have been done always every 3,750 miles (6.000 km as the manual says). Dealer always uses mineral oil and the bike never wasted any oil.

Although the noise is extremely loud and ugly, the bike goes strong and smooth in that gear. It pulls and uses all the power and it even works perfectly as a brake engine in all gears, including the noisy one.

The rest of the gears work just perfectly so I ended up jumping from 3rd to 5th and use the over drive instead of the 4th.

Any ideas of what could it be and if I will have to open that gear box to replace pinions?

Any help or input before getting the bike to the dealer will very appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Nacho.

[Falko]

as always : give colin a shot...
maybe he has repaired allready something like that..

and for this question may the US-Sites be a better resource...
more RSV`s over there - so the prob may be known allready...

and also as always:

good luck in fixing that prob...,
although you have a nice sec. gen. waiting for you

keep us informed

[Pi-eF vum Elsass]

Beware Nacho ! I think it's time for a gear box inspection. Maybe this is the ( or a ) select fork ( if it's too close another gear for i.e.)

I think you must stop to ride, and fix this prob before any other plan .

Later on the road Muchacho !

[squeeze]

Hi Nacho, since i don't ride a RSV, i don't know some Specials from the Bike.

Generally i think it should be the 4th Gear .... Some Pitting on the worn Teeth will produce the Noise. Hard Time to repair that. You can Drive a while if you spare the 4th Gear.

As i see in the Parts-Catalog, you might need three new Pinions, 3/4 Gear Double Pinion Input and 3rd and 4 rd Gear Pinions output. Sad but true, that will cost a lot of Money.

I won't believe in the Shift Cam or Forks, because that is what makes trouble while shifting the Gears, fouling while shifting and makes the Gears, especially mostly the 2nd Gear snap out on Acceleration.

[valhalla]

;D ;D ;D
Hi My Fine Spanish Friend,
Well Nacho , as the others have said there is a problem inside the gearbox, i myself have not come across this before. It sounds as though you have chipped gears or damaged gears .
If it was noisy in all gears then i would go for bearings. If it is not giving any problem while driving leave it alone. You could try draining the oil again and see if anything comes out with the oil metal fragments etc . Failing that the only way is engine out and strip down to the gear box.Megga work and lots of cost to.
Let me know how you get on . Yours Colin

[Nacho]

Well, thanks friends for all the replies.

I just took the bike to the dealer and asked him to take a ride and listen himself for the sound. He just needed about 3 minutes to come back and say I was in big trouble.

He said that the pinion of the fourth gear was either worn out or damaged. And he said that the one for the fifth gear was a little bit noisy too. He was worried because I'm one of his best customers and he said he hates when things like this happens to friends.

He needs to open all the engine and the gear box in order to access to where the problem is. No big money in spare parts, but a lot of time in working at the garage, which means a lot of money.

Now, I'm gonna be probably a couple of months without riding a bike. July because of the working time to open the engine and August because it is holiday time here in Spain and Yamaha Head Quarters will be closed and won't delivery parts.

But anyway. I still can't believe that a gear box with less than 80,000 miles can be worn out. Is there anybody out there wit a similar problem? I know there are many milestones with no problems of this kind.

And secondly. Once that we have to open the engine, is there anything else that I should check? Maybe is a good chance to check other things that we never check that now will be easy to do.

And finally, I would like to compare what my dealer will charge me for the work. So if anybody has ever done a work similar to this one, could you please tell me how much money did you pay or at least how many hours were necessary to do it?

Anyway, thanks in advance for your help and greetings from a sad biker driving now a Honda Accord all the time. At least now I can go everywhere with my son Pablo and my Labrador Retriever, Rony.

Hasta la vista,

Nacho.

[valhalla]

;D
Hi Old Friend ,
I have just looked in the Yamaha times book to do the job and it says 25-30 hours labour at the labour rate i charge in my workshop that would cost £750- £900.00 plus all the parts required and the dreaded VAT at 17.5% that is aprox 1233.00 euro plus parts etc and VAT . Sorry mate ,that is one big job. Rather you than me .
I have never known a second Generation Venture to have this problem , dont know if anyone in the States has had it.
All i can say is the best of luck my friend . Yours Colin
Nice baby , nice dog Nacho

[Nacho]

Hi there.

I went to the dealer yesterday driving my friend Ytu's Venture to see with my own eyes how everything was going on (dealer is 50 km/31 miles from home).

Geeeezzzzz, I wish I never went. I hated to see the new look of my bike!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures I took.































They promissed me to work on my engine today, tomorrow Saturday and next week. I hope they do it fast.

The Venture you see "in normal condition" is my friend's Ytu. There is nothing wrong with it apart from a bad shock absorber, so I took it to the dealer to install a new one from Works Perfomance that Rick sent me from the States with a new set of progressive springs also for the front end.

Here is what we are mounting in Ytu's bike:

[Falko]

looks real bad that beautiful bike

that little mechanic is growing fast ;-))

[Tom_E]

Nacho, So sorry about your beautiful scoot. It must make your heart sink to see her in so many pieces. Well, think of it on a good side, you have a great oppertunity to clean in places you couldn reach before. Su hijo es muy guapo. He is growing fast.
Good luck and the Lord be with you in your repair job. (I am trying to learn Spanish, so if I didn't get that right, I am sorry.)

[Nacho]

Thanks guys.

Tom, your Spanish is just perfect, at least that little sentece you wrote. Thanks also for the e-mail you sent me last week.

Bike is still at the dealer and they told me they will finish the works this week. Will post some more pics with the damaged parts.

Thanks for everething,

Hasta la vista,

Nacho.

[Nacho]

Hi there again, folks.

Just to keep you all updated, I went last week to my dealer to se how my bike was and this is what I finally found.

These three first pictures show the problem. One of the dents of the gear box was broken and was the origin of the noise.







The new part came two days ago and dealer is rebuilding everything this week. He told me that the rest of the engine was in perfect condition and there was no need to change anything else or renew other parts. He said that I could drive another 100,000 miles without any other problem at all (I hope so).

Anyway, the rest of the pictures are just the way a Venture engine looks like when it is all open and dismounted. I hope you like them:





























The only good thing of all this story is that I finally got my "new old" Venture. I bought it from a Dutch friend called Corné (he used to be a member here) and another friend of mine (Rob Groenevlt) drove it from Holland to Spain and spent a few days with us.

Bike is in great condition and running smooth and strong. Has all the accesories I want or need and made me so happy that still can't wait any longer to use it. Paper work is long and hard in Spain and I still can't use because I haven't got my Spanish license plates and all the offcial document. Thanks God that I have another Venture and the documents are so similar that a police would never suspect that bike and the plate don't match. Only difference is the frame number, but I have never seen a police officer checking a frame number in any bike or car. Even the insurance documents from the 99 Venture could be the same and I could cheat police and insurance company. All this is allowing me to do short drives around the neighbourhood and some test drives. Other way, I hate having two Ventures and not being allowed to use any of them.

Anyway, now I'm a happy man again even knowing that I will have to pay 1,500 Euros (1,250 Dollars) to get the Silver Venture running again.

Here are a few pics of the "new old" Venture.
























Will keep you updated with more news.

Hasta la vista,

Nacho.

[Tom_E]

Nacho, that's tough. Nice pictures though. If I ever have to take mine down - God forbid - I will know what it looks like. Which gear was it? I'm sorry to say this, but I like your old one better - looks like mine.
Man, you have a beautiful family. Your two children are just too cute.
Hope you get it back together soon.
Tom