The part that needs modified is the shift detent arm (its the actual peice that has a small bearing on it that rides on the shift arm) its about 2 inches long. what is needed, is to weld about 4 mm of material to it where the spring rests on it, this holds more pressure on the shift shaft and will fix the problem immediately. I called kawasaki tech help and they faxed me a picture and instructions on how to do this. I think your shop BS'ed you and didn't even call. Don't waste any time or money, as I did, on any other repair. THIS IS THE FIX!!!!
Good luck

 

Maddog419 & Midwest
First, thank you!



Midwest, I have a pretty good idea of what you are saying, though I have not opened the bike up. Do you know the Kawasaki bulletin number for this or anything else I can reference to find it?

Crazy question: Does anything fall out when you open up the engine case on the shifter side (besides oil) of the bike?



Maddog419, what exactly do those clutch adjusting screws do?

-Robert

 

 

It appears someone modified the detent arm on my 1995 400 bayou also but it still jumps out of 4rth when hot and jumps out of fifth gear almost immediately. Changing out regular oil for atv oil seemed to help some, guess I will drain the oil again to try to flush out car oil. In my case some one welded on the bottom of dent arm to increase pressure on shift cogs. Any additional information would be appreciated.

 

After 25 years of use the gear dogs may be getting worn, particularly as, at some time in it's life, it must have had the jumping out of gear problem before. May be time to buy some new gears, though a new spring might help for a while. Can't see oil causing a problem, as the only difference with ATV oil is it is suitable for wet clutches.

 

It appears someone modified the detent arm on my 1995 400 bayou also but it still jumps out of 4rth when hot and jumps out of fifth gear almost immediately changing out regular oil for atv oil seemed to help some, guess I will drain the oil again to try to flush out car oil. In my case some one welded on the bottom of dent arm to increase pressure on shift cogs. One of the clutches is slipping when hot in fourth and fifth gear under stress, which clutch would do this? it has two and what do you call the wet clutch and what do you call the centrifugal ??

 

my clutch slips when in fourth and fifth, which clutch would do that, it appears it would be the wet clutch

 

Don't know about the 400 but the 300 is very prone to centrifugal clutch slip, you can (sort of) tell as the centrifugal tends to slip then get a grip as the revs rise, whereas a slipping multiplate tends to slip under load even at higher revs. If the shoes or plates are not badly worn, a slipping clutch responds well to you de-glazing the plates and/or shoes and drum surfaces with coarse emery cloth.

 

after driving a while now fourth gear now seems fine after tightening the clutch adjuster counter clock wise till it stops, but it still jumps out of fifth gear immediately . I believe this is an internal issue, did find some type of metal pieces in the bottom oil strainer but don't know where it came from, looks like the outside race of a bearing. has anyone ever seen this?

 

Tightening the clutch adjuster should make sip worse and have no effect on it jumping out of gear, as you have simply made it so the gear pedal has no play before it starts to lift the clutch, so as things warm up and expand, the clutch may be partly lifted all the time and slip. As I wrote above, the gears are probably worn on the driving dogs, and a strip and inspection of them will show if this is the case, other possibilities are bent selector forks, worn shift drum, etc.