I recently took apart my 74 Yamaha TY250. After putting it back together and with some help, got the motor running great, BUT, the bike will only shift into 1st and neutral. I did not spilt the cases. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What did you do to the motor?

First, the reason I tore the motor out was because over the winter nearly all of the oil leaked out and I could not tell where it leaked. So I removed the motor from the frame, took off the covers, pulled the cylinder, piston, flywheel, flywheel backing plate, clutch assembly, and at this point I did not have a clutch holding tool, so I attempted to remove the gear change shaft assemlby. I took off the circlip on flywheel side but it wouldn't come out. I then removed all of the bolts holding the 2 halves together thinking I might be able to split it just enough to get some liquid gasket in the seam but that wasn't happening so I started to reassemble. Instead of splitting the halves I cleaned the middle seam and applied liquid gasket on the outside for a quick fix. Now the bike is all back together. My father in law went over the carburetor and points and got the bike running great, but somewhere I meesed something up and now it won't shift. It will go into first, but when you try to shift to 2nd the shifter goes the full distance but only hits neutral at the end of the shift, not in the middle. I hope I explained this well.

You probably need to check out the shift mechanism that is behind the clutch and see what has gone wrong when you tried to get the shift shaft to slide out. You can loosen the clutch nut using a folded rag jammed in the primary drive gear mesh point

Probably a stupid question, but did you put the circlip back on the shift shaft?

Yes I put the circlip back on, but honestly I think it is something dumb so please keep giving me ideas! Thanks! My father in law has the bike so am just passing all of this along.

The teeth on the clutch end of the shaft sounds like it has jumped a tooth on the change mechanism when you have had circlip off the other end. Clutch off to have a look . if so take circlip off push shaft through slightly line teeth up push back in circlip on would be fine.

Midlife you are exactly right. My father in law just informed me he got it all fixed up and it was 1 tooth off. Thank you all for your help!

On 3/15/2016 at 5:06 AM, feetupfun said:

You probably need to check out the shift mechanism that is behind the clutch and see what has gone wrong when you tried to get the shift shaft to slide out. You can loosen the clutch nut using a folded rag jammed in the primary drive gear mesh point

Probably a stupid question, but did you put the circlip back on the shift shaft?

I have the same exact issue. Which circlip are you referring to? 

Thanks

10 hours ago, motosolex said:

I have the same exact issue. Which circlip are you referring to? 

Thanks

There should be a circlip on the shifter shaft on the left side of the motor. The circlip bears against the shifter shaft oil seal and prevents the shifter shaft from moving towards the right. It may not be immediately visible because it may be concealed inside a plastic roller/wheel that protects the shifter shaft from the chain rubbing.

On 1/19/2023 at 7:00 PM, feetupfun said:

There should be a circlip on the shifter shaft on the left side of the motor. The circlip bears against the shifter shaft oil seal and prevents the shifter shaft from moving towards the right. It may not be immediately visible because it may be concealed inside a plastic roller/wheel that protects the shifter shaft from the chain rubbing.

Thank you David for clarification.