Factory Pro Tuning
21 Golden Gate Dr
San Rafael, CA
94901
1-800-869-0497
Back to my YZF600R page.
The Factory Pro shift kit for the YZF600R is said to improve shifting by making it faster, more positive, more reliable, with fewer missed shifts and false neutrals. After reading many reports on the YZF mailing list from happy customers as well as those who've had to rebuild their transmissions after the gears wore down from so many bad shifts, we took the plunge and installed this kit on our bike. Verdict: two thumbs up! It lives up to the advertising.
The instructions that come with the kit are extremely terse. A good write-up was published in Motorcycle Consumer News in the January 2001 issue, so rather than concocting my own complete review I will shamelessly copy theirs, without permission (!), and make some additional remarks where I feel they're warranted. I've omitted some superfluous text, shown by [...]. In exchange for copying their article I'll point out that MCN is a very worthy publication, high on interesting and useful content and completely free of advertising.
You can find scanned-in images of the MCN article on the web, but when you print it out, they're impossible to read, so I think you'll find my typed-in copy much more readable when you print it and have it beside you while installing the kit. I also recommend having the Yamaha service manual at hand.
January 2001 Motorcycle Consumer News
By Steve NattToday's sportbikes are better than they've ever been. [...] Even so there's still room for incremental improvements... [...] That's why [...] most bikes come with relatively cheap seats, suspension parts and other elements where cost-cutting won't compromise safety. My 1999 Yamaha YZF600R is an excellent example of this. [...] [There] is one issue we'd guess nearly every YZF owner will want to address and an unpleasant legacy left over from the old FZR400 and FZR600 machines. Namely, the shifting. Your left foot will encounter more crunching balkiness upshifting to second and downshifting to first on this bike than on any other current 600. False neutrals are also readily available in several nearby locations.
The problem is most upsetting during high RPM clutchless upshifts during spirited sport rides or track days, but it's noticeable even when calmly tooling around town. [...] Luckily, there is a solution.
Marc Calvisberg [...] sent us his fix; the "Factory SHFT-PRO-YAM-1 transmission detent arm kit with heavy duty spring that virtually eliminates missed shifts" -- or so the single sheet of enclosed paperwork promised. It comes with a new gasket for the clutch cover and the two new parts.
[Remove centre fairing behind front wheel. Remove right side fairing.]
Drain the oil and remove the clutch cover. Be sure to place a rag across the wide holes that lead to the oil sump, or you'll surely be fishing with one of those "magnet on a stick" tools for assorted [parts].
Once inside the case, remove the 6 bolts holding down the clutch springs, pull off the outer pressure plate and the clutch assembly, keeping all the plates clean and in order (this is a good time to inspect and, if necessary, replace them). Next grab the centre pin with your fingers and tug it out -- it's held in place by the pressure of an O-ring and will just "pop" into your hand when you pull it.
Your next task is the big high-torque nut holding the clutch basket on. Once you use a drift to nudge back the metal locking tab, you'll need a beefy 27-mm deep socket to undo the nut holding the clutch basket in place. This seems to me to be a two person job [...] With the bike in 3rd gear and assistant stomping on the rear brake, I was able to get the nut loose without damaging anything. I might have been able to do it alone, but it worked out better this way. If you've got a compressor and a 1/2" air impact wrench you could do it solo.
I did not need a "deep" socket; an ordinary 27mm socket was sufficient. You will need an extension though. I tried to loosen this nut while standing on the back brake but it wouldn't budge. Fortunately my neighbour has an air impact wrench which made short work of the situation.
As you remove the bearings, sleeves, and fat [flat?] washers/spacers that act as guides for the clutch basket, make note of how they come out so you can return them in exactly the same way. We placed them on a clean bench in the order they came out (like an exploded image on a microfiche) to facilitate their correct return. With all those small pieces out, the clutch basket with its attached ring gear can be angled out carefully without bumping into the mainshaft's threads.
There are three 5mm allen bolts holding the oil pump assembly in place. Access each of these by rotating the pump drive gear and unscrewing them in turn (they are held in place by red Loctite so it's best if you have a set of 3/8" drive Allen sockets -- we don't think you could remove this part with a handheld Allen key). Then very carefully pull the oil pump straight out. You'll see a superthin paper gasket: preserve this. If you tear the stock one [...] there isn't a replacement in the kit [...]. Prudent readers will order this gasket [...] and have it ready before starting the job.
With the oil pump out of the way, you can now clearly see the shift drum, detent arm, and spring. Have your helper gently click through the gears a few times from the left side of the bike so you can watch the action and see how it all works. Turn the rear wheel if it seems to hang up. You can use your finger to reach in and actuate the detent arm. Notice how light the stock spring is. Use this opportunity to see exactly how the arm actuates the shifting drum and how it sits in the return spring so you can install the new parts correctly.
While shifting through the gears like that, you have to either turn the back wheel or turn the transmission shaft by hand to make the gears fully engage. You may have to also nudge the gearshift shaft back in once in a while because it creeps outwards without the clutch cover in place, allowing the mechanism to disengage. Pay attention to which of the pockets in the star gear the detent arm's roller sits in for each gear you're in. There's one shallow pocket for neutral, a different shaped pocket for first gear, and the rest seem the same. When you go to reassemble you want to line up the detent arm roller with the proper pocket in the star gear corresponding to what gear you left the transmission in.
There is a 10mm hex bolt holding the detent arm assembly in place. Again, be sure that you have that rag strategically placed below it before you go after it with your socket. The bolt will feel tight as it unscrews because the spring is pushing the pivot hole of the detent arm against it. Remove the bolt and the old assembly. Even though my YZF has only 6600 miles on it the actuator disc that rotates on the end of the detent arm felt gritty and notchy. It didn't spin freely at all. Also, because it is just a simple disc held loosely to a pin, it is constantly moving laterally as well, flip-flopping from edge to edge. This takes it off the optimal smooth concentric rotation and causes binding and drag. The core beauty of the replacement part is its smooth spinning sealed bearing.
All of you who have gotten stuck at this point in previous jobs know this is where bad repair manuals say, "Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly," [...] In fact, putting the new detent arm and srping assembly back on is the trickiest part of the whole job. Here's why. The new spring is remarkably stiffer than the old one, yet it has to be compressed to allow the detent arm to line up in place. The left side with the bearing has to be flat and flush with the shift drum pins, and the right side with the pivot hole must align with the threads below. Anytime you have parts fighting alignment at installation like this and a steel bolt going into aluminum threads, you have a recipe for disaster. You do not want to cross-thread this bolt, yet the spring pressure makes it quite difficult to feel that the bolt is properly seated in the first turn or so. We tried this with one hand pressing the parts in place and the other attempting to thread the bolt, but it never felt like it was going in correctly. Again, having a second skilled set of hands at this stage was immeasurably valuable.
I wrapped a latex glove around the tip of a large flatblade screwdriver so as not to scratch anything and levered the parts into place, while pushing the detent arm slightly down and to the right with my other hand to make the hole line up. Only then did [assistant] try to thread the bolt, which he did successfully. [...] [The] single sheet of bullet-point instructions didn't mention any of this and could therefore leave clumsy consumers in a heap of trouble.
Indeed, this is very tricky business that will try your patience! When you pry down on the new stiff spring it wants to slip forward off the end of its post. What finally worked for me was to have my assistant press the old detent arm tightly against the face of the post while I pried the spring down. This kept the spring on the post. Once I had the spring pried down tightly, it gripped the post and did not slide off when my assistant removed the old arm. While holding the spring down I maneuvered the new detent arm into place, ensuring that the star gear was in the proper position corresponding to what gear I left the transmission in. While I held the new detent arm in place (and spring pried down), my assistant threaded in the bolt.
Note that LocTite is required on this bolt! Neither the instructions from Factory Pro nor the write-up in the MCN article mention this. Torque value is fairly low: 10 Nm (7.2 ft-lb).
With the new parts in place, work the gears again and feel the difference. It takes a bit more pressure to get the tranny to shift up and down, and there is the attendant louder "clack" caused by the higher spring rate, but the ball-bearing wheel flows ever so much more smoothly over the shift cam.
On reassembly, watch out for the oil pump gasket, use red Loctite on the three oil pump bolts, and torque to the recommended specification.
Torque on the oil pump bolts is also 10 Nm (7.2 ft-lb).
The clutch goes back on the way it came off. Just be sure to align the round index dot on the outer pressure plate with the triangle index mark on the inner clutch hub or the clutch won't work. You'll be able to feel this immediately if you got it wrong. Carefully clean off the old gasket from the clutch cover and make sure the case face is smooth, clean, and dry as well. Replace the cover and be careful not to over- tighten the 5mm bolts. Use your torque wrench. Next, change the oil filter and put in the new oil.
The instructions from Factory Pro mention these round and triangular index marks. I could not find them on my bike (1998 model). The pressure plate seemed completely symmetrical. I installed it with arbitrary orientation and it works fine. Perhaps this index mark business is left over from the FZR400/600. Apply lithium grease to the centre pin (with the O-ring). You're supposed to use a new locknut on the big clutch nut. Torque on that nut is 70 Nm (50 ft-lb). Torque on the clutch cover bolts is 12 Nm (8.7 ft-lb).
[...] you'll be amply rewarded for the 2.5 hours of work you've just put in -- the kit works. The bike now shifts crisply and smoothly, although it takes a bit more foot pressure to nudge it into first at a stoplight than before. There are fewer missed shifts under hard acceleration, meaning fewer hazardous visits to redline and beyond. High speed clutchless upshifts are so smooth and quick that we'd wager this fix alone would create a measurable improvement on the dragstrip. This is the single best and most necessary fix to a stock YZF after changing the OEM tires to stickier aftermarket rubber.
So, is the kit worth $79.95? If you amortize that out over the thousands of shifts you make every month, the answer is "definitely". Should Yamaha have put parts like these on the bike in the first place? Absolutely. After all, how much could a 10mm bearing cost instead of that crummy stock floating disc? Our only caveat is that there are several opportunities for the ham-fisted do-it-yourselfer to screw things up during installation. If you feel at all worried about this, have a good mechanic do it for you. That shouldn't cost more than $100 or so in labour, and even with that, your suddenly sweet-shifting YZF is still a screaming good deal.
Agreed -- it works great!
Factory Pro Tuning
21 Golden Gate Dr
San Rafael, CA
94901
1-800-869-0497
Back to my YZF600R page.