TOPIC:

I have put about 200 miles on 1300 since I finished the restoration. I have noticed a bit of a rattle when shifting up into 2nd gear.
It's very brief, and the bike doesn't drop out of gear even under hard acceleration. It doesn't do it when shifting down into first, just up into second.

If I'm "lazy" when shifting it will stay in neutral, as long as I shift firmly it goes into gear and stays there, just a slight rattle. Every other gear is butter smooth.

The Odometer claims 66,000 miles but I can't confirm that is accurate. During the rebuild I pulled the pan off the bottom of the engine and had a look around, shift forks etc. looked good. I did not split the cases though.



So is this normal, just a sign of age in the transmission, or an indication of a problem?

I wouldn't say its normal. Is it clashing like its not going easily into gear or is it something different?

Is the rattle at low RPM, high or all the time when shifting to second? What happens when you don't use the clutch to shift?

I've had 3 different KZ1300 transmission under me in the last year. One with very low mileage and another that was so high the engine was worn out but the transmission did not make any noise when shifting gears.

I would think it's an indication of a problem if it only shows up in one specific gear. You're right to suspect a bent shifter fork but as you pointed out, bent forks usually come along with the transmission jumping out of gear. The other possibility could be that one of the gear dogs is ticking off of one of the gears and that could happen if the fork is bent or if the detent on the shifter drum is weak and the drum has an opportunity to float slightly in that particular location.
Not sure if you can pull the pan and see enough to figure out what's ticking, but I don't think I'd be continuing with the riding until I sorted it out.
My 2 cents.
KB

It's very slight, but noticeable. It does not happen all the time either. I'm going to try and get a video with good sound so you can all have a listen.

The best I can explain it is normally when you shift it just clicks into gear, some times it goes tic-tic-click in 2nd.

I know the transmissions are supposed to be very stout in these bikes, so I was pondering if the neutral finder (or some other bit) was perhaps sticky after years of sitting or something to that effect... this bike sat for a long time before I got it running again. This bike had hard bags and a windscreen on it and was well cared for when it was running years ago, no obvious signs of abuse anyway.
The other piece of info I can add is that the clutch is a bit sticky. In the morning after it warms up and put into gear to drive away it "clunks" and shakes when it goes into gear. Enough to stall the bike at idle sometimes. Its adjusted properly, and I use good oil Castrol motorcycle type. Maybe the sticky clutch is causing the issue, but its only in second that I've noticed it.

That's a completely different story. The rpm difference when shifting from first to second in the transmission shafts is always substantial and since the transmission doesn't have scyncronizing gears, there will always be a substantial "CLunk". You could try just slowing down your shift with your foot and allow the secondary shaft a chance to slow down, and what I mean by that is run it up in first, back off the throttle as you pull in the clutch and hesitate the shift into second. Think of it as shifting a car without using the clutch. As you pull it from one gear to the next, pause in neutral and allow the transmission a chance to slow down so the next gear scyncronizes before pulling it into the next gear.

If there's a slight drag in the clutch pack, it will also cause more of a clunk or in your case, ticking and then the clunk so you may want to just check the clutch adjustment and the critical check is the lever point on the actuator. If you look at the lever, it should be past 90 degrees to the cable so that when you pull in the clutch half way, the lever is 90 degrees to the cable. That way you achieve the most rotation of the clutch actuator for the given pull on the cable.
The only other check would be to inspect the clutch basket for notching. If the clutch plates and fiber plates get stuck in a groove, the plates will not completely disengage and again, you'll experience some difficultly during shifting.

hope this helps,
KB.

So I did some experimenting while riding the last few days...

If I shift at low rpms, its perfectly smooth. If I shift without the clutch its perfectly smooth all the time. If I shift "late" into second at higher rpms, it will sometimes rattle. So then I played around with delaying the shift, by that I mean I would run up in first gear and pull the clutch and wait a second before shifting... then it would do it almost all the time.