My trike...won't shift

[onedollartrike]

I recently purchased a 1984 Honda 125 for $1! Only problem is that it won't shift into gear. I got it from a family member that good care of it but he said one day it just wouldnt shift into gear. He then put it in his he'd and that's where it has sat until yesterday. I'm no mechanic but I am ok at fixing things if I know what the problem is. Any ideas or past experiences with this? Any advice will help.

[fabiodriven]

One simple solution that works sometimes, particularly with the model you have, is to change the oil. I've seen that fix more than one of these trikes that were stuck in gear or wouldn't go into gear.

Get yourself a nice motorcycle or ATV oil, change it, and go from there. DO NOT use regular car engine oil. It does not have the right additives to support a wet clutch.

[dustrunner]

if that atc has a hi-lo range down on the pull start side of the engine. make sure it is either all the way forward or back and them try to shift it...

[ezmoney1979]

Shift drum stoppers are a common problem also.

[tri again]

search key has tons of 'shift' info.
x2 on an oil change for any new machines.
Clutch adjust is easy and free.
service manual
is avail for free.
Worst case is take the side cover off withOUT losing, dropping or misplacing
anything.
Take lots of pix and get a side cover gasket.
Drain the oil and lay the trike as dead level on it's side before you take the side cover off.

yeah, best is read everything you can about 'shift problems 125m'
or search key for the word 'shift' and you can pick the posts that apply to the 125m.

I had am external shifter bent just enough to drag on the case but hard to notice.
Could be super simple or a 9 dollar shift drum stopper that can be fixed in an hour or so with about 4 tools.

Congrats on the new trike and welcome btw.
You'll get it.
We always do.

[TimSr]

I hate to burst any bubbles, but if it will not shift into gear, changing the oil will not fix it. It should shift through the gears with NO oil in it. I suggest you don't waste a quart of oil to figure that out.

Make sure the Hi/Lo range selecter is working. They seem to be a commonly sought after item. Remove the clutch side cover, and 9/10 of the time, whatever has failed will be obvious, and will be within that side cover, and will not require splitting the cases to diagnose. Last one I did turned out to be a broken casting holding a bolt, and had to replace a case half. Your problem may vary.

I won't even get into the oil debate other than to say, I'd never use good expensive oil to test anything, or to flush out a recently repaired motor. Wait until you are confident it is fixed and working well, and has a little run/flush time before draining it and using good stuff, unless money is no object. If it won't work with cheap oil, putting good oil in will not fix it either. The purpose of good oil is longevity, not repair.

[fabiodriven]

I hate to burst any bubbles, but if it will not shift into gear, changing the oil will not fix it.

Tim, you are wrong here. I am speaking from experience, and not just on one occasion with this particular problem.

I have owned more ATC110's and 125M's than I can even remember and this has happened to me more times than I can remember. I don't know what it is with these motors but when the oil gets old this happens. Particularly when the bike is hot but not always.

The first time it happened to me I was just a kid. I was probably 12-14 year old. My 110 was stuck in neutral and I was mad because all I wanted to do was ride. I didn't have the skills required to split cases at that time and I figured something in the transmission had let go. My older brother (who is a bike guru) bought the 110 from me for a song, changed the oil, removed the neutral indicator from the neutral indication shaft, put a set of vise-grips on it, popped it back into gear, and it never had the problem again.

It happened to me many times after that and I never forgot that lesson my brother taught me. Whenever it happened to me after that (on different machines, not the same one) , I knew I had pushed my motor oil too far. I would change it and viola. I've never had to split a case to fix this problem, ever. And I've owned a lot of these little trikes. That's not to say that it's impossible to have a problem inside the transmission. Obviously it happens.

As a matter of fact, I just had this problem a month ago on an 85 110. I gave my buddy my 1985 ATC110 as a housewarming gift back in the spring. I hadn't changed the oil in years, but I didn't ride it that much when I owned it. He started riding it a lot and one day he called me up and said it was stuck in 3rd gear and wouldn't come out. I told him to change the oil, which he did, and we haven't had a single issue with it since. We've been riding it all over his trails multiple times since then.

This just reminded me of the neutral indicator shaft trick. Just as I wrote above, if you can't get it to go into gear after changing the oil, remove the neutral indicator from the shaft and give it a coax with a set of vise-grips. Make sure you do it gently though. You don't want to cause any more damage than there already is.

[Firsttrike]

Wow this is very cool information. I am really curious to hear from the op if it worked. I guess this wouldn't work for my problem of my low/high/selector lever being stuck in low would it?

Not sure if onedollartrike is still checking his thread here but let us know if this fixed your problem.

[fabiodriven]

This would not fix your low/high problem. Sorry.