I have a '99 m900 with 11k miles, and for the last couple of days I've been having trouble shifting from 2nd to 3rd and occasionally 3rd to 4th.  The shift lever seems to get stuck and takes a couple of seconds to finally shift.  I have been doing clutchless upshifts, basically just going into 2nd and putting a little pressure on the lever when I want to shift to 3rd and letting it shift when it's good and ready to.  Not sure what to do... would an oil change help it shift better?  Bleed the clutch?  Or could it be something internal in the gearbox?  I did get a one year warranty with the bike, but the closest dealer is an hour and a half away, and if it is something simple, I'd like to just do it myself.

Thanks in advance.

1 year warranty probably pertains to the dealer that sold it to you. not anywhere else.

as for the shifting, check the lever itself. more than half of the problems you get from shifting is from bad foot positioning. When is the last time you changed your oil?

The lever appears to be fine, but if it was the lever, wouldn't I have problems with all gears?  I've only had the bike for just over a week, so I'm not sure about the oil change, or what kind of oil is in it, but the oil appears to be fairly clean.

Im not talking about the condition of the lever, im talking about hte position of it. Sometime your foot gets in an awkward position and you cant shift properly. If you look at the distance between 1st and 2nd, its much bigger than 3rd and 4th, or atleast thats how it feels like on my bike.

Maybe your clutchless technique is off. Is everything okay when you shift with the clutch?  Oil can appear good, but if its been sitting around for a year, its not any better than used oil.

Sorry, I guesss I misunderstood.  I also didn't explain very good in the op.  I was shifting with the clutch up until I started having the problem shifting from 2nd to 3rd.  Seems to be easier shifting without the clutch than riding in 2nd, clutch in, think I'm shifting to 3rd, and letting out the clutch to find out I'm still in 2nd.

The shift lever does feel fine when it does shift.

Would an oil change make that much of a difference in shifting?  I do have 4 quarts of Klotz synthetic and a new filter, but I'd hate to dump it in if it's gonna need to be drained to fix something internally.

Maybe clutch or slave going bad???

If the bike shifts well without the clutch I would assume the transmission is fine, so the problem would be clutch hydraulics or technique.  A clutch fluid change and bleed may help, also inspect the slave for leakage.  Lazy shifting doesn't work well on a Monster.  Lazy shifting  can be the cause also.  Unless you already do, pre load the lever like you do for a clutchless shift, disengage the clutch just enough and follow through all the way.  Lowering the lever a tad may help with follow through.  An oil change may help too.

If none of the above work there is an adjustment under the left side cover.

Haven't seen any leaking around the slave.  I have no idea how old the clutch fluid is so I guess that might be a good starting point.  Can I use brake fluid, or does it need to be clutch fluid?

Quote from: mojo on August 27, 2008, 04:50:47 AM
Haven't seen any leaking around the slave.  I have no idea how old the clutch fluid is so I guess that might be a good starting point.  Can I use brake fluid, or does it need to be clutch fluid?

Clutch fluid and brake fluid are the same.  Use your favorite brand DOT4 or 5.1.  DOT3 will also work.  If you don't know when your brake fluid was changed you might want to do that also.

Thanks for all the help
I'm lovin' this forum.  There's a lot of great people here to help each other out.  Hopfully someday I'll have enough knowledge of Monster's that I'll be able to help out on here the same way other people do.

BTW, I'm probably gonna get a couple repair books (Haynes, and LT Snyder) so that I don't have to ask so many questions.

Thanks again

I bought the Haynes book thanks to this forum as well.