It seems my sensor may have gone bad. I took it out recently and cleaned it and put it back in. It worked for a few hundred miles, so I thought that had solved the issue. Unfortunately, the problem came back. I have been having an intermittent failure whereby the gear position / neutral indicator (and neutral light) on the dash sometimes will not display the N for neutral. It's worse than just not seeing that on the dash, because the ECU also raises the engine idle speed by around 200 RPM when the light isn't working (when the bike is in neutral), because it "thinks" that the bike is in gear, presumably to counteract the effects of clutch drag, or something. Additionally, when the indicator fails to display neutral, the bike will not start with the kickstand down or the clutch lever released and will stall if the kickstand is put down (again, because it "thinks" the bike is in gear -- i.e. NOT in neutral, even though it actually is).
Side note: I am also planning to disable the side-stand "safety" switch feature, as to me, it seems like more of a hazard than something beneficial: if the kickstand spring were to break, for example, the stand falling could then stall the engine unexpectedly and potentially even cause a crash. I don't like that, so I'm going to bypass it. Even without the stand's spring breaking, I know that the spring is not strong enough to properly do its job: the stand is a bit loose and can flap around a bit over rough surfaces. I know from previous experience that the same issue on Suzuki's DRZ400 would cause the engine to cut out over rough terrain (worse in that instance due to that model being used off road). I don't need any of that nonsense LOL. In addition to disabling the sidestand engine cutoff switch, I plan on getting a stiffer spring or doing something similar to fix that issue.
Anyway, removing the gear position sensor's wiring was a bit of a PITA -- as a lot of things seem to be with all these **** sport bike plastics in the way of everything. I know, I know, I bought a sport bike (again...haha)... If anyone else has this problem or needs to remove the sensor, feel free to PM me if you have any trouble or anything.
Right now, I am waiting for my order to arrive (I also ordered a new o-ring and new mounting screws). Hopefully, the new part will not be back ordered from Japan for like six months (who knows, with the way things have been lately), and it will actually solve the problem for good so that I won't have to waste any more time with this stupid problem.
I really shouldn't be having this problem. It's practically a new bike still with under 8k miles on it. If the new part fixes it, I guess it won't be that bad, and to be fair, the part including the o-ring and screws plus shipping and tax totaled only $33. If a new unit does not fix the issue and/or the new unit soon fails, too... Well, that will be fast approaching the border between "sh** happens" and "totally unacceptable." We shall see.
Has anyone else here experienced this issue or anything similar? If so, did you fix it? How?
[EDIT: I will post updates below in this thread to note the success or failure of this repair]
Side note: I am also planning to disable the side-stand "safety" switch feature, as to me, it seems like more of a hazard than something beneficial: if the kickstand spring were to break, for example, the stand falling could then stall the engine unexpectedly and potentially even cause a crash. I don't like that, so I'm going to bypass it. Even without the stand's spring breaking, I know that the spring is not strong enough to properly do its job: the stand is a bit loose and can flap around a bit over rough surfaces. I know from previous experience that the same issue on Suzuki's DRZ400 would cause the engine to cut out over rough terrain (worse in that instance due to that model being used off road). I don't need any of that nonsense LOL. In addition to disabling the sidestand engine cutoff switch, I plan on getting a stiffer spring or doing something similar to fix that issue.
Anyway, removing the gear position sensor's wiring was a bit of a PITA -- as a lot of things seem to be with all these **** sport bike plastics in the way of everything. I know, I know, I bought a sport bike (again...haha)... If anyone else has this problem or needs to remove the sensor, feel free to PM me if you have any trouble or anything.
Right now, I am waiting for my order to arrive (I also ordered a new o-ring and new mounting screws). Hopefully, the new part will not be back ordered from Japan for like six months (who knows, with the way things have been lately), and it will actually solve the problem for good so that I won't have to waste any more time with this stupid problem.
I really shouldn't be having this problem. It's practically a new bike still with under 8k miles on it. If the new part fixes it, I guess it won't be that bad, and to be fair, the part including the o-ring and screws plus shipping and tax totaled only $33. If a new unit does not fix the issue and/or the new unit soon fails, too... Well, that will be fast approaching the border between "sh** happens" and "totally unacceptable." We shall see.
Has anyone else here experienced this issue or anything similar? If so, did you fix it? How?
[EDIT: I will post updates below in this thread to note the success or failure of this repair]
