Gear Position Indicator

[defrazier]

Opinion needed.

Over the last several weeks, sometimes when shifting, my gear indication has some indecision. Going from 5th to OD, it will display 4th for a moment (1-2 seconds), then finally show the OD.  With 66K miles, I am finally finding something not working so well. I suspect there may be some oxidation building up on the contacts inside the rotary switch assembly. It's not too bad, and can only reproduce when riding, particularly going from 4th to 5th, and 5th to OD, but does not do it all the time. I usually do my own maintenance, since the dealer would probably want to keep the bike there for a while (2 more years on GTPP), and wondering if this is something that can be disassembled and cleaned. The service manual only indicates "replace" if the multi-meter readings are out of spec, and not much of a clear picture of the assembly. Does anyone know if this can be taken apart and flushed with contact cleaner?  Hate to try it, only to make the problem worse, then the dealer may not want to cover a botched attemp.

 

[Fred H.]

I had some issues with the gear position sensor on mine and tried all sorts of ways to fix it. It seemed like it was temperature dependent, and worked better when it was warm. I removed it, cleaned up all the contact and connectors and it made no difference. I tested it with an ohm meter and found it was defective. I took it into the dealer and they replaced it under warranty and all my problems went away.

The problem was masked because the ECM also looks at the RPM and wheel speed and calculates gear as a back up, so as soon as you let out the clutch and rode in a gear it would auto correct itself most of the time. The way to tell if the sensor is bad is to shift gears and keep the clutch in for several seconds after you shift. If the indicator doesn't change untill after you let out the clutch, then chances are good you have a bad gear position sensor.