Seemed to have taken a good hit to my gearshift today and managed to knock the spindle it is attached to hard enough (towards the rear of the bike) to put a large crack in the left crankcase and rip out a hole the size of a quarter. Needless to say all the oil drained out on the ground (=O) and I was left with a bike that wouldn't shift. I managed to get the bike back in first and limp it back to my truck. Okay, now for the questions....
Having taken a large chunk of metal/composite out of my left crankcase (not the cover the actual crankcase) just aft of the gear selector spindle I would assume I have to replace the whole left crankcase. I've had my bike for a couple years now and have managed to avoid going to my local bike shop and paying through the teeth for service, but this sounds like a job that might require a fair bit of knowledge and special tools. I feel like I might come up short and was hoping if anyone else has had this problem and tried to do the fix themselves. Secondly, is this a common occurence? Ironically enough I had just installed a Hammerhead shifter on my bike and was taking it out for the first ride. Something tells me that the ox-like strength of the shift lever caused the failure and the stock one just would have bent. Anybody else have an opinion on this one?
Any tips are past experiences or tidbits of CRF wisdom is much appreciated. Thanks