7000 went into neutral

[captainruss99]

Hey guys, 16 7000 with 12,500 miles, well maintained. I was tooling along a trail on a long stretch of 65-70 mph, and it went into neutral. No grinding, strange noises. Pulled over, removed left side panel, both clutches spinning at idle. Shut it off, restarted, gave it some throttle, moved as it should. Took off, ran for another 300 miles, did not repeat. This is the first and last time it happened. I had a 2012 procross for 15k and that sled never did this. I ride with many Vipers and a few Winders, and none of them has had this issue. Now that my winter's over, I pulled the chaincase apart, and everything appears normal except, the manual chain adjuster was a bit loose. It did not back off, as the jam nut was tight, so that means the last time I adjusted it, around 3k miles ago, I must have done it incorrectly. The other thing, the bushing on the upper gear is a bit loose. Nothing radical, but more than I would like. I did buy a new aftermarket, supposedly updated bushing and installed it. My questions here are; In your experience, is the loose chain a possible reason? Combined with the slightly wobbly upper gear? I replaced the actuator about 3k miles ago, and it has been working perfectly since. All the jack and driveshaft bearings were replaced around 6k miles ago as a maintenance procedure, the old ones were ok. Now that it is off season, I would like to put this behind me. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

[STAIN]

I think that upper bushing is a good place to start. If you replaced it with a quality aftermarket one, I think that would eliminate that as a problem.
I don't believe a slightly loose chain is your problem.
Make sure the shift fork pads are good also.

 

[Srxspec]

Top gear bushing is getting loose, replace the bushing and the shift fork pads and you'll be good to go again!

 

[captainruss99]

I'll look into the pads. On my '12 procross they didn't have the actuator gear detent/spring assembly to hold pressure on the gear. Only the actuator kept it in gear. I found it strange that with all that pressure it would do what it did. The bushing fits real good anyway. I ordered the shift fork pads, should be in next week.

 

[captainruss99]

Update on this. While I was waiting for parts, I got sidetracked and put this on the back burner. During my inspection, I felt a bit of a "dry bearing" feel on the jackshaft. The clutch side bearing was fine, but the wobble bearing felt a bit off. I noticed some pitting on the balls of the wobble bearing. Figure that the bearing is vibrating, due to the pitting, the loose bushing on the top gear is flopping around, likely causing the shift fork to dance a bit, and disengage from forward. New wobble bearing, seal, bushing and fork pads, should do the trick.