Brand new Barnett clutch destroyed? (Installed two weeks ago

Hey guys so I am extremely confused

I was coming home from a two hour night time ride. Going down a hill and tried to downshift. When I tried to shift the bike seemed like it caught the clutch and went through each tooth. It bucked quite a bit and when I tried to pull the lever in, the clutch was unresponsive and required me to slam on the brakes almost throwing me off the bike.

The bike shifts through all the gears, but when I put the bike in second gear it acts as if it’s in neutral. I am able to shift into neutral and get the same results as second gear. It will not shift into first gear. When the bike is in gear I can completely release the clutch and it will continue running.

The clutch lever and cable are brand new and had a normal amount of free play (installed at a shop), but now it has none and is extremely tight. I checked the clutch cable to the gearbox and it moves as it should.

Did my clutch blow or is it an underlying drivetrain issue? I’ve had no issues with the clutch since I installed it two weeks ago (installed it because the other clutch was slipping).

Bike has 8800 miles and is 2014. I installed the clutch myself exactly to manual spec and used the recommended yamalube oil from Revzilla.

Thank you all in advance

This sounds like a gearbox problem, not a clutch problem.

When you say that you cannot shift into first, and second behaves like neutral, is that with the engine running? How does it behave with the engine not running? Can you shift into first then?

@johnkol
When I have the bike off it will shift up from neutral to second and down from second to neutral, but it will not downshift from neutral to first

Could it be due to the same cause that made the original clutch so short lived?

@on2whes52

I actually purchased the bike this December with 6400 miles. It’s my first bike and I have no idea what occurred to the clutch in the prior miles :/

xdfailure wrote:

When I have the bike off it will shift up from neutral to second and down from second to neutral, but it will not downshift from neutral to first

Then this clearly shows you that the clutch has nothing to do with your problem, since the function of the clutch is to separate the motor from the gearbox.

It sounds like you either damaged the gear shifter drum, or grenaded a gear and the debris has jammed the gear shifter drum. Neither is good news, and you probably need to open the cases to figure out what is going on.

@johnkol

Darn. I am sincerely hoping its a bent or broken shift fork but I may have to replace the whole trans if I grenaded it. I've been looking for videos on transmission rebuilds for the WR but have yet to found any.

xdfailure wrote:

Darn. I am sincerely hoping its a bent or broken shift fork but I may have to replace the whole trans if I grenaded it.  I've been looking for videos on transmission rebuilds for the WR but have yet to found any.

A damaged shift fork is another possibility, although it's difficult to imagine how it could have been damaged on its own. In any case, this does not change the end result, that you have to open the cases.

There is nothing unique about the WRR gearbox, so any video you find that shows how to open the cases and how to troubleshoot a gearbox will work for the WRR too.

In the center of the clutch with the housing off there is a little set screw that adjusts the amount of throw of the clutch. Did you adjust that? It is very sensitive, very little movement makes a big difference. Could be it isn't adjusted correctly or may be damaged or missing.

sumbike wrote:

In the center of the clutch with the housing off there is a little set screw that adjusts the amount of throw of the clutch.  Did you adjust that?  It is very sensitive, very little movement makes a big difference.  Could be it isn't adjusted correctly or may be damaged or missing.

He's having the problem even when the motor is off, so how the clutch is adjusted is irrelevant.