Gearbox Failure: Tenere died... Possible clutch or even gearbox
 

So today my tenere has died on me in spectacular way...
During some moderate fast offroading, on acceleration through some bumps she has made a noise and lock the rear wheel, like chain come off.... naturally i have pull the clutch and stop, then i was trying to find neutral, at this point when i press on the lever bike has made awful grinding noise and then become quiet and revved up... so i stop the engine, and checked the chain... all good.
Try to start the bike, and despite neutral light on she was on gear (?!!) also clutch seems to not work... I have try to down shift to 1st gear and start the engine, just to get out off the green lane to main road... starts and start going slowly on 1st gear........ after about 5 meters loud bang and bike stall... since then starter wouldn't even spin the crankshaft - its like hitting something with loud metallic noise.
I think something is really messed up :-(
There is no neutral, to push the bike you need to pull the clutch.
What you think guys??? - gearbox or something with piston?

I'm not sure, but when pulling the clutch releases the rear wheel it shoud be a problem between clutch and piston. As far as I know the clutch is located between crankshaft and gearbox.

The only way to be sure is to open the engine

Cia�
Solitario

Sounds expensive, you will need to strip the motor, stop trying to start the motor you could be causing further damage, pull the clutch cover off first ^ check the main crank gear & nut.

I know, it sounds grim... i will start from taking off clutch cover, and see there first. If this will look OK, then stripping the engine, and to be honest i'm not that confident in this type of work. Cylinder, cylinder head i'm ok with, but splitting engine in half it's too much for me :-(
Will probably go for buying second hand engine and swapping, or selling bike as non runner :-(

If you can pull the head off an overhead cam engine then may I suggest at least have a go at splitting the cases if that is whats required. Think of the knowledge you'll gain and with google and XT660.com as your friends what have you got to lose? It sounds a daunting task but with the right methodical approach its amazing what you can achieve. Good luck mate.

Sent from my MB526 using Tapatalk 2

I wonder if it's a problem as reported earlier on the forum - maybe the shift drum stopper bearing has failed with fatal consequences to third gear.

Scary to hear! I hope all goes well for you.
I read somewhere that it would be advisable to replace that stopper around 50k. So I replaced mine , the bearing was fine and seemed well, but the arm was bent. Also changed the chain tensioner. Makes me wonder about the reliability of the engine as my last bike was ridden hard for twenty years.

Thank you for your good words :-) Will see in what mood i will be when it comes to stripping.

Do you have to split the engine to replace this stopper?


More i read about this it's more possible it's this...

I recover the bike yesterday (it was in someone back garden until i organize a van) and play around a bit.

My conclusion was - clutch works ok, i even managed to find the neutral playing with gear change lever (it felt very "wonky")... Interesting thing was - when on second or third gear (can't tell as shifting the gear was pretty messed up) you can push the bike without pulling a clutch (!!!) It feels "heavy" but there is no contact with piston or crank as its smooth (you can't feel or hear piston travel).

Good luck mate and let us know how it goes!!!!