My buddies '99 banshee is stuck in second gear. The sift lever won't move. I'm just trying to get a few ideas on what may be wrong before we tear into it. I'm thinking something is wrong in the the shift star assembly, or possible bent shifter forks. Any other ideas, anyone have a similiar problem/fix.

Thanks
Tom

 

My '98 banshee stuck in third gear a few months ago. I took it to a local mechanic and the problem was the shift shaft. At the end of the shift shaft, there is a mechanism which had rotated 180 degrees. It would no longer shift up nor down. Apparently the shift shaft had moved towards the clutch side of the engine far enough to allow this mechanism to spin completely backwards and once there it wouldn't work. I don't know how to fix it, but after having repaired the internals, the mechanic placed a large washer between the shift lever and the left side engine cover to prevent the shift shaft from traveling that far over again. It has worked fine ever since. I hope this helps.

 

I had the same thing happen on my 99 banshee. For me it was a little clip on the end of the shift shaft had snapped. It was like a $10 part, and easy to replace. Just pulled the clutch cover, and did it!

 

Well we took it apart last night. There is a screw that holds on the shift star. Somehow it came loose and backed out far enough to lock up the whole assembly. Someone at yamaha must not have torqued it properly or forgot to put on locktite because it has never been taken apart before. Shortly after the assembly locked up, we started to hear a clunking noise. A piece of foreign material (still dont know what it was yet, nothing found) got suck on the clutch basket for 2 revolutions and took out two teeth on the Primary Drive Gear and one gear on the basket itself......ouch!