[MnRider]

Hello Everyone!

I just picked up a mint little trx 125 for only $200 bucks. It had been sitting for 5 years, but I thought what the heck, put some gas in it and it fired right up and purrs like a kitten. Gotta love old Honda machines!

It was making a clicking noise in either first or second gear and I read that the sub-transmission could be suspect. I took it apart and found 2 gears with missing teeth. Luckily I was able to find a full gear set on eBay that looked brand new!

Before I installed them I resealed the case without the gears and ran the machine through all the gears and it was quiet (I read somewhere that its a good way to rule out main tranny issues). After I installed everything, it shifts through all the forward and reverse gears easily. But it is still making a gear clicking sound in R, N, 1 and 2. Gears 3-4 run great and the machine is quiet. Would anyone be able to answer the following questions?

1) Is there anyway I could have put the sub transmission together wrong and still have all the gears work perfectly? Do these symptoms point to the sub-tranny?

2) If I took the clutch cover off would I be able to see any of the main transmission gears to see their condition?

I thought about just letting my girls ride it in just 3rd and 4th, but it is so clean, I'd hate to cause more damage to an awesome vintage machine.

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!
Ben

 

[shadetree]

without sub-tranny gears in, its quite ?, this tells me you very well installed the sub-tranny gears in wrong. dont bother with the clutch area, this is not where you should be looking. either you installed the sub-tranny gears wrong ?, or...your main tranny has issues ?. maybe a shift fork ?, bad gear dogs on one of the counter gears on the main shaft ?. only way you will be able to see this ?..is split the motor !. if I had to guess ?, my money says the problem started on the main tranny gears, and made the stripped gears rear its ugly head as you now are faced with.

 

[MnRider]

Hey Shadetree, thanks for the reply and info!

It did seem quiet with the sub-trans out of the machine, but it didn't have any resistance against it either. I double checked the sub-trans and everything looks right per the manual. There really aren't any spacers or shims that could cause my misalignment. I did see a post somewhere though where someone was talking about having to modify the sub-trans forks thickness to get everything to line up right. I'm not certain, but I think the sub-trans only moves in super low gear and reverse, which makes it seem like a main tranny issue because it makes noise in 2nd gear as well. AHHH!

I guess its a 2 gear machine until notice, that job looks like it would be a bit much for me to take on. I don't suppose there is any way to try to remove the metal from the crank case short of opening it up? I was thinking I'd just do a couple oil changes and hope for the best.

Thanks again!
Ben

 

[shadetree]

Hey Shadetree, thanks for the reply and info!

It did seem quiet with the sub-trans out of the machine, but it didn't have any resistance against it either. I double checked the sub-trans and everything looks right per the manual. There really aren't any spacers or shims that could cause my misalignment. I did see a post somewhere though where someone was talking about having to modify the sub-trans forks thickness to get everything to line up right. I'm not certain, but I think the sub-trans only moves in super low gear and reverse, which makes it seem like a main tranny issue because it makes noise in 2nd gear as well. AHHH!

I guess its a 2 gear machine until notice, that job looks like it would be a bit much for me to take on. I don't suppose there is any way to try to remove the metal from the crank case short of opening it up? I was thinking I'd just do a couple oil changes and hope for the best.

Thanks again!
Ben

other than splitting the cases ?, no..no way to get ALL the metal out of the lower engine.