Kawi2strokes.com Forum

Good Morning Kawi2strokers, Just wanted to see if this is a major issue.
I have a 72 H2. When its idling and in First gear with the clutch pulled in, I cannot back up or push back without it locking up. What could be wrong with it?

That is normal. Don't force it or serious damage will occur.

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Answers are here: http://kawatriple.com/

Dale is correct, never back up in gear. It can engage the kick start and slam down breaking cases and could cause you much damage too!

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Twist the throttle, tilt the horizon, and have a great time. What triples are all about...........

Thank you Gentlemen for the advice.
I do have a second 72H2 and it does not do that.

Actually it's the Yamaha twins that I've seen photos of that slammed down the starter and broke the case. Triples can't engage the kickstart lever with the engine like that since the starter stuff is after the clutch and you're holding in the clutch lever when you're trying to back up in gear, they just have 1st gear grab the mechanism and lock up... also possibly breaking something admittedly.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

It's a good way to break the shift drum, tho. why you would want to do that (clutch it in gear and push backwards)anyway is beyond me.

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"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

When I had my transmission apart recently I looked at what happens when you do it. 1st gear on the output shaft snags the kickstarter gear and pulls it back on the helical spline, engaging it. Since 1st gear is turning the wrong way, it tries to move the starter lever backwards, and of course it won't go that way so it locks. The shift drum isn't unusually loaded, and the engine running isn't involved, but it could bust 1st gear or break the kick starter mechanism if you did it hard enough.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.

Do you have a theory on broken shift drums, Jim? I've seen broken drums, they seem to link to this situation, but, never having done it myself......!?

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"One day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." : anon.

I stopped at a light and was over the white line so I need to push back a bit to give more room to left turning traffic

Nope, I sure don't. As a guess, maybe once things break, if you're still rolling backwards, or if you let out the clutch, the broken parts can shove the shift fork hard. Of course at that point about anything could get broken.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.