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[Spitting Bull]

Recently I found that the gear lever had become very sloppy so I removed the outer cover and found a broken ratchet spring, which I replaced. Now, the gear lever doesn't always return to the central position and changing down can be noisy with a bit of grinding gears at times. Can anyone suggest what I might have done wrong when reassembling? (Just so I know what to look for when I take the cover off to check). I'd be grateful for any ideas.

[Chris [Stockport]]

Could you say which bike/ box, please?

[NicoV]

That outer (trapezium form?) plate which covers the switching mechanism, is maybe not aligned well. Should be more or less central so that switching either way has the same "space".

[Clement]

As Chris is saying - which bike? In case of a Bullet with a Albion gearbox I wonder if you replaced one of the 2 springs in the ratchet shifter mechanism; in doing so you might have removed or loosened the adjuster plate(the last plate closest to gearbox - only one spring, the control lever return spring,sitting behind this plate); by loosening the two studs holding this plate you can slightly turn this adjuster plate clockwise or anti clockwise and in doing so center the shifter mechanism and find (by trial and error)the best position - I think that NicoV refers to the same thing.

[Spitting Bull]

Sorry all - I should have thought to mention that the bike is a 2004 350 bullet - Albion gearbox.

[binary]

I had the same problems. Now I am no fool when it comes to mechanical things but I could never get my Albion 4 speed gearbox to change properly. No matter how I adjusted the thing it just would never change properly. Clutch set up perfectly, Albion gearbox set up perfectly just the way everybody said to do it but still the grinding and false neutrals. 6 months I mucked around with this box on my knees with my arthritic old joints down on a concrete shed floor a torch in hand looking into this horrible gearbox and what did I get for all my efforts, nothing. I could never get this gearbox to change properly. In the end I was going to sell my RE and even had a gumtree add wrote out when I decided to try a H's 5 speed gearbox. I put it in and instantly all my problems were fixed. The gearbox was changing perfectly and the clutch was beautiful and light and the motorcycle felt light and nimble to ride. If you ever have the money try a H's "5 speed gearbox with right side shifter" and you will be instantly taken into the world of modern motorcycling. The old 4 speed can be taken out and the new 5 speed can be put in without taking the motor out of the frame.

[Clement]

My take is that there may not be the need for gearbox replacement yet as the thing worked until you replaced the spring - so the key might be re-adjusting the adjuster plate as mentioned above -suggest try different settings as already explained. Take off the outer plate (stop plate) so that you can observe the inner ratchet moving around after you have the back wheel off the ground and temporarily fitted the gearlever back on; rock back wheel while you go from neutral to 1st, second etc etc and see how the inner ratchet engages (or not);
I am sure that there are more knowledgeable guys out there who may want to add - I am new to this myself but had similar problems after replacing complete ratchet shifter; all working fine now and as good as I can wish for given the odd false neutral which is not untypical of this box! Look at the parts on line drawings to make sure that you have all the parts in the right order and facing the right way. Good Luck.