this is with the engine off?

 

This is with the bike off, but with substantial rocking. I've always been able to get it into first before.

I just put the flywheel, engine side covers, frame quarter, and exhaust back on tonight and I'm going to start it tomorrow and see if I can get it into first with feathering of the clutch or anything.

Since no amount of rocking can get it in, I highly suspect it will not work. Do you have any thoughts in that event? Visual inspection of the shifter linkage doesn't suggest anything bent or any broken welds, the teeth are lined up. It shifts smoothly between all the other gears.

 

Nick,

When I pulled the left side cover off, we have the same bike, for a gasket repair I messed up the A/B spindle alignment. I then found out you can mesh them in a few different ways.

I put the bike on the center stand, to move the wheel by hand as I shifted it by hand. It took a lot of playing to get the right setting. I put the side cover on a few times to do a better test to make sure before sealing it up.

Also note that you have 3 or 4 different length screws on the left cover and they need to be in the right holes. Let me know if you need the drawing I made up (its at home).

Larry - Cleveland

 

when you look way into your engine where the two external shift rods connect make sure the sector gears are meshed like this picture.



if your off by one tooth the sector gear hits the case and cannot go into first.

that photo is looking in through the hole to the right of the spindle

 

also instead of rocking the bike put the reaqr tire up in the air and spin it if the final drive gear is not lined up rocking may not be enough because the gear has to turn almost a full inch inside the case for the hole to line up with the buds on the gear.

 

Thanks for the fantastic pictures and advice! I made sure to properly align the A and B spindles and carefully installed the side covers with new gaskets and the proper bolt pattern (I push them in a styrofoam pattern as I remove them; afraid I've learned the hard way one too many times ).

The situation is indeed that the arm of spindle A hits the case before the shift spindle plate can push the cam plate quite into first. Unfortunately, this is occurring with the A/B teeth aligned properly.

The bike is unfortunately missing a center stand and I'm without my platform jack at the moment so I can't easily spin the rear wheel. I have, however, rolled the bike the 15ft down my driveway as I try to get it into first and have been thus far unsuccessful. In your opinion, would there be an advantage to starting it up and trying? I'm trying to avoid complete re-assembly (to start it) and then repeated disassembly of everything if my current tests are appropriate.

When I'm watching the shifter cam it looks exactly like it does in this person's YouTube video (1983 honda shadow vt 750 shifting - YouTube). For N-6, the motion is enough to kick the cam over to the next gear. Shifting from 2 -> 1, the motion is only enough to get into neutral, and you can convince it into first by manually turning the cam slightly farther (as the man in the video does with a socket).

 

check the return spring on the shift shaft, just to make sure it's functioning properly.
If you want a center stand for it I have a complete extra assembly from an 84 .

 

Alright guys, I finished things up.

The Honda service manual explains how you need to take off the clutch basket and oil pump sprocket and all sorts of things to remove the B spindle of the shifter linkage. I'd been trying to avoid this but luckily the manual is all sorts of wrong. You can easily get it out with just a little bit of playing. I was also trying to avoid taking out the plug on the bottom left of the crankcase because I know putting that back is just asking for a future oil leak, but alas I bit the bullet.

Bottom line, I took out both spindles. Spindle A has a tooth that's half ground off, I'll have to hit up eBay. The teeth of spindle B look to be in good condition.

Spindle B looks alright. It looks like there's a chance that maybe it slipped a tooth on the splined shaft some time in the past. But I think it'll be alright for another couple years. I'll let it go. For now I'm just going to replace Spindle A and take a chance.

Thank you guys very much for your help. Once a new Spindle A comes in I'll put it back together and we'll see how things look and whether or not Spindle B is going to slip a tooth now and then.

 

Nice find! Yea, sometimes you just gotta get in there and get dirty.