650 gear lever mod...

[Dickster]

After 40k miles the inability for me to be able to tighten the lever correctly had an detrimental effect, one night on the way home from work the lever started to slip on the splines. I limped it home.

I alway knew it was loose (even when the bolt was tight) but now after inspection and yet another attempt to tighten, a more permanent and proper fix was need to stop the considerable amount of wear that was taking place to the splines on the shaft.

The problem with mine was that when the bolt was tightened and pinched the lever around the shaft it was still not real tight (the surfaces wrapped around the shaft and met before it was tight). So, I removed some metal from the flat surfaces on the lever so that there was a larger gap (only a few mm was removed) and now when I tighten the bolt the lever clamps tightly and the surfaces no longer meet as such. Even with both the splines of the lever and the shaft quite worn the lever has remained solid - I should have done it 40k miles ago! Now the new lever i got on ebay sits unused in the garage!

I dont know if this is a common problem, but if your gear lever suffers similar problems the mod may be useful to you.

Cheers