916 transmission Lockup
 

Hello gentlemen,
First timer to the forum, but I come with a significant issue. My 916 has been a difficult shifter around second gear, with neutral a pain to locate for quite awhile. I've generally lived with it for several years now - it's only affected the upshift and downshift around 2nd, notchy and with a periodic lock when short shifted that could be loosed by revving it over 6k, pulling in the clutch and then it would shift normally. I was recently out on a longer ride with the boys and it was doing its "normal" acting up, but was dealt with, when I had it lock in second and before I could dislodge it, I had to pull over for a mate that had run out of gas. When I took off from this, I started in second slipped the clutch and revved it well over 6k and pulled the clutch in and nothing - no shift. rode for another 15 miles in second to get home and pulled the left side cover to see a broken spring on the selector upper joint. I figured - yes! - the problem! I bent up a new one that did the job, re-adjusted all the selector adjustments to their specs, put everything back together after trying out a few shifts with the case open - still very stiff, but kinda worked. hmmmmm.
Anyway back together - no joy, no shifts, now stuck in a higher gear where I got it to when playing with it before closing it up. I just opened it up and everything looks good, but I can't get it to shift at all now, even moving the wheel to try and get the dogs to engage. the selector can't rotate the drum at all.

To conclude the sad story, I did find most of the pieces of the broken spring, but nothing in the oil or on the drain plug magnet. I'm out of ideas other than pulling the engine apart, not a pleasant notion at this point in the riding season. Oh Yeah, I have played with the clutch side of things with little effect, my fluid level is fine and the color is the same as the brake fluid, etc., so I'm pretty sure that's not a major contributor. So if there's any other suggestions before I get to digging into the engine, they would be very welcome.

Assuming it is something in the transmission, any idea what in there might be causing this type of behavior?

Thanks in advance,
jack