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Gear Shift Indicator

azc14

azc14

Training Wheels
Lately my gear shift indicator (on the display) has been acting erratic.
For example When I shift up to 4th, the indicator shows 5th for few seconds and then shows the correct gear. this happens up/downshift from 6th to 5th to 4th and 4 to 5 to 6

BTW this is the problem on my ZX14.

thanks
 
Try this experiment. Next time you shift to one of the gears that is displaying wrong, don't let out the clutch and see what happens.

If the indicator shows the wrong gear until you let out the clutch, then you have a bad gear position switch, and you'll need to replace it.

The way the system works is that it first measures the resistance value from the gear position switch, and displays the gear that is closest to the resistance value it measured. Then when you release the clutch, it compares the engine RPM to the speedo output as a backup method.

I had a faulty gear position switch on my bike and it took me a while to figure out what the problem was, but it acted similar to yours. Once I convinced Kawasaki to replace it, all my problems went away. I put a thread about it, but I think it was one of the many that were forever lost on the old board when it "crashed". I think I may have also put an article about it in the Concourier.

When I removed the sensor from the bike and ohmed out the center ground pin back to the black wire at the connector I found resistance on it, and was throwing off all the values as a result. It appeared to have been internally wired wrong. When I got the new one and took the same measurement, it was 0 ohms, like it should be.

original.jpg


This should read 0, not 384 ohms. I measured from the center conductor on gear position sensor to the black wire on the other end of the harness that goes to it. That was the cause of mine reading erratically.

large.jpg
 
I would try disconnecting the battery overnight and see if that helps first. It might do nothing but I always start there first.
 
By the way, there have been a number of complaints about this issue with both C14 and ZX14's, and my suspicion is that the vendor who makes the gear position sensor manufactured a bad "lot" of them, and they never got tested properly before being installed in bikes.
 
Great reply Fred.

By the way, when I drove my C14 off the lot, for the first 20 miles of so, the grear indicator was either blank, or was off by one gear, occasionally correct. Later, it settled in and started working fine. I concluded that the gear indictor has to "learn" the bike. If this is true, what can be learned can be un-learned - possibly thrown out of sync from a bad shift, double shifting, false neutral, etc. Maybe.

 
Based on this, I'm thinking mine is out also.

Seems I can confuse it more often than I like.

Is it part 13151: SWITCH-COMP,NEUTRAL?
 
Egodriver71 said:
Based on this, I'm thinking mine is out also.

Seems I can confuse it more often than I like.

Is it part 13151: SWITCH-COMP,NEUTRAL?
Click to expand...

Yes. On my 2010 the P/N is 13151-0031 (SWITCH-COMP,NEUTRAL)

It's $85 at Ron Ayers. I'd recommend you try to get your dealer to replace it under warranty if at all possible.
 
Fred_Harmon_TX said:
Egodriver71 said:
Based on this, I'm thinking mine is out also.

Seems I can confuse it more often than I like.

Is it part 13151: SWITCH-COMP,NEUTRAL?
Click to expand...

Yes. On my 2010 the P/N is 13151-0031 (SWITCH-COMP,NEUTRAL)

It's $85 at Ron Ayers. I'd recommend you try to get your dealer to replace it under warranty if at all possible.
Click to expand...

No warranty anymore.

I can live with it for awhile.
 
I picked up my new 2012 C14 2 weeks ago and did the same thing.  I drove back to the dealer and they ordered a new switch.  I put about 100 miles and then it was working normal.  ???
 
I had my gear position sensor fail on my C-14 and occasionally I got the same sluggish display you mention but I also get the occasional 3, 4, 5, 4 reading while up shifting into 6th. Mine was replaced under warranty.

By the way, you will probably want to replace the contact pins and springs that ride against that sensor at the same time the sensor itself is replaced; the tips of the sensors wear along with the senor pads so just replacing the sensor itself does not restore the system to 100% of what it was when new.

Brian


azc14 said:
Lately my gear shift indicator (on the display) has been acting erratic.
For example When I shift up to 4th, the indicator shows 5th for few seconds and then shows the correct gear. this happens up/downshift from 6th to 5th to 4th and 4 to 5 to 6

BTW this is the problem on my ZX14.

thanks
Click to expand...
 
I bet most of the problems above could have been fixed by simply readjusting your shift lever. Mine showed the same problems right off the showroom floor, and I rode that way for a little bit.... One day, I decided I didn't like my shifter position and when I adjusted it, the gear indicator began to work flawlessly.

:beerchug:
 
RUFFSTUFF said:
I bet most of the problems above could have been fixed by simply readjusting your shift lever. Mine showed the same problems right off the showroom floor, and I rode that way for a little bit.... One day, I decided I didn't like my shifter position and when I adjusted it, the gear indicator began to work flawlessly.

:beerchug:
Click to expand...

You mean that you moved the position of the shifter up or down?

thanks
 
azc14 said:
RUFFSTUFF said:
I bet most of the problems above could have been fixed by simply readjusting your shift lever. Mine showed the same problems right off the showroom floor, and I rode that way for a little bit.... One day, I decided I didn't like my shifter position and when I adjusted it, the gear indicator began to work flawlessly.

:beerchug:
Click to expand...

You mean that you moved the position of the shifter up or down?

thanks
Click to expand...

Exactly. I was all about taking the bike back to the dealer to get the gear indicator fixed, but as soon as I adjusted the shifter to a more comfortable position for shifting, the issues stopped. I don't know why it worked out that way, but it did.
 
I was skeptical about this solution. However, I did move the lever one notch up and it took care of the problem.
Went for a 400 mile ride past weekend and the gear indicator worked flawlessly.

thanks
 
You're welcome. It's good to know that a simple fix is available vice a dealer trip and waiting. I can't say for certain but my gut tells me that if you have or had this gear indicator problem, the shifter position was the cause and not the sensor.
 
RUFFSTUFF said:
You're welcome. It's good to know that a simple fix is available vice a dealer trip and waiting. I can't say for certain but my gut tells me that if you have or had this gear indicator problem, the shifter position was the cause and not the sensor.
Click to expand...

Not in my case. When I removed the sensor and check the resistance on the center post, it was way off by several hundred ohm, and this is what caused it to act erratic. When I got the new one, it had zero ohms doing this same test. Simply replacing it solved all my issues.
 
Fred_Harmon_TX said:
RUFFSTUFF said:
You're welcome. It's good to know that a simple fix is available vice a dealer trip and waiting. I can't say for certain but my gut tells me that if you have or had this gear indicator problem, the shifter position was the cause and not the sensor.
Click to expand...

Not in my case. When I removed the sensor and check the resistance on the center post, it was way off by several hundred ohm, and this is what caused it to act erratic. When I got the new one, it had zero ohms doing this same test. Simply replacing it solved all my issues.
Click to expand...

Individual results may vary.

Awesome!
 
i just replaced my position sensor. i should of done this a couple of years ago.

it had acted up for about 2 or 3 years but the this season it has been worse.
 
My 2010 did this after I bought it in the Spring of 2014. I cleaned the engine spooge off the bike and the problem went away never to return. I've also adjusted my shifter since then to account for lower pegs and have not had any issues with the gear shift indicator.
 
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