Crazy gear howling

[cogsman]

Hi All,

I just finished swapping my TBRs for a stock exhaust. Love the fact that it won't make me deaf. One thing that was unexpected was the howling of the gears when I take off. It gets louder as I accelerate and shift up. Kind of freaky really.

So to be clear: all i did was remove the exhausts (and engine guard and left foot pedal/shift pedal for access), and while the exhausts were off I changed the final drive oil.

No leaks, everything is fine. So what gives with this howling? It sounds like the gears but who knows? I never heard anything like this in the 2.5 years i've had the bike.

Is it possible that it was just being masked by the decibels of the TBRs?

Or did I rooster something up?

I am noticing that shifting seems to be much more difficult suddenly, specifically:

Very hard to find neutral
When I drop it into 1st, it gives a frighteningly heavy "clunk"
The shift pedal itself is very loud when I shift (you can really hear the mechanism clanking)

Clanking, clunking lol, I have no idea what's happening. Maybe I misaligned the pedal arm? Here's a pic:



It looks aligned but for some reason it seems to angle upwards towards the right (maybe that's correct?). You cant really see it here, but the arm is not flush with the edge of the pedal (it is slightly recessed). Would any of that make any difference anyway?

Your help is appreciated. Hoping I didn't wreck my clutch somehow. I checked the arm, and there is very little play in any direction. I was worried that when I took the exhaust off I might have damaged something?

[Patrick]

The shift lever can be adjusted to wherever you want it for the best fit for you and your shoe.
If you have never riden a Valk with a stock exhaust exhaust before, you'll be surprised at the noises they make, one is the transmission. These transmitters are pretty bulletproof and I doubt there is a problem with it. They make noise, whiney.
About the only problem with doing any exhaust work is getting the gaskets to seal and not leak. You'll also need to keep snugging the exhaust retainers several times.

[salty1]

The shift lever can be adjusted to wherever you want it for the best fit for you and your shoe.
If you have never riden a Valk with a stock exhaust exhaust before, you'll be surprised at the noises they make, one is the transmission. These transmitters are pretty bulletproof and I doubt there is a problem with it. They make noise, whiney.
About the only problem with doing any exhaust work is getting the gaskets to seal and not leak. You'll also need to keep snugging the exhaust retainers several times.

Ditto! With your TBRs in place, the noise was masked. Valks are a whiney lot at certain rpms. My Cobras eliminated all kinds of noise except for the rumble they created.  I cant explain a sudden change in shiting ease. There's no way changing your exhaust out would cause resistance in gear selection IMO.

[desertrefugee]

Looks like you have a heel/toe setup on there.  From my Goldwing experience using them, I can say sometimes they're a bugger to get adjusted right.  If you dinked with the shifter mechanism, you'll need to un-dink what changed if it was "better" and "smoother" before.

That activity is totally unrelated to your "new" whining noise.  I believe that has been explained adequately above.

[WintrSol]

While you may need a good flush and bleed of the clutch fluid, fiddling with the heal-toe shifter could be the answer. It shouldn't hurt to do the fluid - it need flushing every year or two, anyway, and is cheap.

[cogsman]

I flushed and properly bled the fluids this year. It was fine until I started this exhaust work. Though it may just be a coincidence

[desertrefugee]

The difference of one or two teeth on the shifter arm is no big deal with just the toe shift lever, but when the heel/toe apparatus ties in, for some reason, those one or two teeth start to make a big difference.

It's no coincidence.

[Ricky-D]

Just from the picture it looks as if there will be trouble upshifting.

The extension arm seems much too close to the frame rail and could

possibly hitting when up shifting.

***

[Lyle Laun]

From the picture, I'd pull the shifter and turn it clockwise until it is level, then put the kickshifter back on. Be careful when tightening up the kickshifter. Make sure the spacer nut is behind it and leave the main bolt "loose" it needs to rattle a bit to work properly.