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So it has been a long time since I've been on here. My 16 year old (son#2) has his motorcycle permit and has been riding our (now his ) 250X, mostly on the street. We installed a new master link chain and his circlip came off and then the master link resulting in the chain bunching up and bending the gear shift shaft.





My problem is it does not seem like the bent shift shaft will pull through the case as is in order to replace it. Do I try to bend it back enough to pull through or are the tolerances there too tight? Also I don't want to crack the case as it seems to be intact at this point. Or do I grind the shift shaft lever off the right side and pull it through from the left?

Taking all suggestions! BTW -seems to shift through all gears fine.

What I would do is pull it like normal (or at least try to) from the clutch side , then if it seems jammed , then go ahead and cut it off as close as you can , as you will need to replace the seal anyway .... hopefully the bearing did not get compromised otherwise you will be pulling the cases apart ..... but I would pull it from the clutch side unless you can pull it back enough to get a good cut on the clutch side and use a rag or something to catch the shavings as you are cutting (maybe have your son hold a shop vac close to the cutting to catch the shaving) then try to push it thru the bad side , but either way , I am thinking you are going to have to cut one end or the other to get it out without damaging anything more than already has been , then hopefully you will just need to replace the seal ......

Some sort of cutting/grinding was where I was heading towards too...just really hard to get at the left side, but I will see how close the sawzall can get, otherwise it is angle grinder and cut off wheel on the right side.

Hi Bosshaug1 good to see you are still around.
Make sure you leave some sticking out so you can remove the cutoff burr off the shaft otherwise it will catch on something on the way through just to ruin the day.

Some sort of cutting/grinding was where I was heading towards too...just really hard to get at the left side, but I will see how close the sawzall can get, otherwise it is angle grinder and cut off wheel on the right side.

Dremel with a cut-off wheel , I have one and it works great ....It's about 1-1/2" so it should not have too many issues with the space

So update, went thru 3 cheap cut off wheels, 3 good cut off wheels. Tried using my 4 1/2 inch cutting wheel on angle grinder and also grinding wheel. Ended up using a drill bit once the end was off and apparently dug into the shaft enough to be able to bend it off. I cleaned off the end and then tapped it thru the left side.

Now I just have to clean up any metal bits and put it all back together. I almost think it would have been easier to split the cases???

Wow .... Well at least you finally got it ..... that thing is bent pretty good too

How does the bearing and seal look on the shifter side ???

The seal was toast and removed, already had a replacement. The bearing seems fine although this is a before cleaning photo.

I did test fit the new shifter shaft and it slides in easily without any free play, so fingers crossed!

Yea , hopefully the bearing did not get compromised ...

So I got everything buttoned up, starts and runs fine, but seems to be leaking transmission oil from the right case. I used a new gasket, cleaned everything up really good, but I couldn't find torque specs for the case cover bolts. I used a criss-cross pattern and kept them pretty low torque. I don't see any cracks, but an I missing something here? Just trying to get my son back riding!

So went ahead and let my son ride the bike around the block. Good news is engine runs fine, shifter works great and goes through all gears easily. BAD NEWS: leaking transmission oil out of the right side cover and when I checked the engine side oil it was overflowing! I did replace the water pump bearing, seal and oil seal. Is there something blocked causing oil to dump into engine side? Also how to I get a good seal on the right side cover? I did use a new OEM paper gasket, but no sealant.

The case should seal ... Did you install the Dowels ??? .... if the surface was clean and free of the old gasket , and no oil was dripping down on the new gasket , it should have sealed if you went in a criss cross pattern in 2-3 steps , it should not be more than 7 ft. lbs. or 10 Nm. , same as the round clutch cover , you can use sealant , but it is not necessary ..... as for oil crossing over (its going from the tranny side to engine ?? , or engine side to tranny ??) it could be a couple things , there is a flapper valve on the ignition side , there is also the inner case gasket (which separates the 2 main case halves) , then the balancer shaft and right crank seal ..... depending on which way the oil is going determines which seal/gasket it could be , if its going from tranny to engine side , I would suspect right crank seal .....

@JimDirt -thanks for your help, really appreciate it. First of all, yes, did install the dowels and did use a clean dry gasket; I cleaned and prepped it really well before that. Maybe I didn't criss-cross the right way? The leak was a slow drip at the lower right case edge, then once bike was warm a fast drip-drip-drip. I then checked the engine side oil and it was overflowing.

I did buy a full seal kit, so assuming I have a right crank seal also. Is this something I can get to from just the right side (maybe using the drill a small bolt in the seal and pull method)? Also, my son is asking if I know of a professional mechanic in the area, doh!