Aug 21st, 2006
Carriage Bolt Gear Selector Repair For SV650
Carriage Bolt Gear Selector Repair For SV650
Introduction:
So somehow the gear selector “foot” has snapped off your SV650. Could be someone tipped it over and you didn’t have frame sliders or some other mishap. Now Suzuki is beckoning you to spend 60 dollars to buy a new one! Well, with a bit of work, and assuming your selector pedal is not too bent or broken at the wrong spot, you can use a carriage bolt to fix it for about 5 – 10 bucks, depending on the tools you already have! Basically we are going to drill out a hole for the bolt and tap it with threads and then thread in a carriage bolt! Simple! I’ve got some pics for you to use as a basis for your own fix. Is it easy? I did it in my kitchen with hand tools, so yeah, it’s pretty easy.
Disclaimer:
This is simply a listing of the steps I took to fix my broken gear selector lever. I’m not a mechanic nor do I claim to be. I don’t know how robust this fix is so be careful. I’m sure that if you drop the bike, it will break again. Keep in mind that this repair may fail on you while you are riding, so I suggest you read it through and decide for yourself if you want to do it.
Installation:
This is what I did, you may want to do something else, but this worked and you can use it as an idea. Read through before attempting anything. If you screw it up, go buy an OEM part. The thing is that the lever is broken already, so breaking it more is irrelevant.
Tools:
You’ll need to remove the gear selector pedal from the bike, and you’ll need to operate on the bike
Hex keys, not sure what size, but they come in your tool kit, so everyone has one.
adjustable wrench
locktite/threadlocker
17/64 inch drill bit
5/16 inch carriage bolt and nut, I used a 2 inch one but had to cut it a bit since my lever was bent a bit
5/16 inch tap (A “tap” is used to create threads in the hole)
tap handle (or not, I accidentally bought the wrong size and ended up using a wrench)
C-clamp, or a vice vise
Optional JB Weld
Step 1:
Remove the pedal/shift lever assembly. First loosen the lever adjusting rod.
IMPORTANT: the buts circled in green are LOCK NUTS, this might be obvious, but I was an idiot and turned them the wrong way. Simply turn them such that the nuts go towards the center of the rod. When that is done, you can just rotate the rod until it comes off!
The bolts circled in pink are hex bolts, remove them and the assembly should come off the bike.
Step 2:
Using a 17/64th inch drill bit, drill out the part where the shifter “foot” was. Note that I used a hand drill.
(This hand drill belonged to the guy who stole my old bike and abandoned it in the saddlebags as the cops arrested him!)
Step 3:
Tap out the hole using your 5/16th inch tap. I bought the wrong size tap handle, so I used an adjustable wrench instead. Hey, it worked, so what the heck.
Step 4:
Remove the rubber “boot” from the original shifter foot, if you still have it.
Take the 5/16th carriage bolt, and put the rubber boot on it. If you lost the boot, I’m sure that wrapping the bolt in electrical tale might work, or better yet, a huge glob of JB Weld/Epoxy. The boot fits nicely!
Thread the nut onto the bolt (not shown on this pic) , you may want to put some threadlocker (or JB Weld) on the threads. This is your new shifter “foot”
Step 5:
OK, now thread the foot onto the lever, again you may want to put threadlocker on it, or JB Weld/Epoxy. Lock the nut tight against the arm.
Now for me, I found that this bolt was too long, so I took a Dremel to it and cut it down a bit, because my shifter arm was bent a bit such that the bolt extended too far back. I could have simply added another bolt to the “foot side” to make the foot longer, but I cut off the excess instead.
The lock nut is pointed to by the pink arrow and the excess that I trimmed is shown in green, you can see that I could have simply put another nut next to this nut. Maybe that was a better idea, since it would lock down the first nut good. I chose to saw off the excess because I didn’t want the foot too long, it might make it more breakable;
Step 6:
This is optional, but I globbed JB Weld/epoxy onto the back end of my lever and smeared it on the exposed threads and the nut to lock it in place and to “smoothe” out the extended part so it wouldn’t catch on lever adjusting rod. (Yes this picture sucks. JB Weld resisted all efforts of my camera to focus on it. I think the stealth fighter’s secret is that it is coated with glue)
Step 7:
Put the lever back on your bike! Make sure to use threadlocker on the shifter assembly bolts to prevent them from working loose! You are now done. I didn’t bother with pics, because it just looks like a normal SV shifter lever!
This page is a mirror of http://www.mindspring.com/~vlok/SV650/Gear_selector/gear_selector.htm
