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Without this brace, this excessive free play eventually wears out the oil seal that surrounds the shift shaft exiting from the transmission case. The end result is an oil leak out the side of your bike, coating the bottom of your engine (and eventually your bike) in oil:
This seal will need to be replaced. Fortunately, the replacement seal from Honda, part number 91206-286-013, is available for less than $2.00, and will likely be available forever, as Honda uses this same oil seal on the shifter of virtually every motorized conveyance they manufacture up to (but not including) the GL1800. Replacing it is a bit tricky as it is hidden behind those pesky exhaust manifold pipes, but it can be done without tearing the exhaust off the bike if you have a bit of patience.
1. Remove the pinch bolt from the shifter arm. This bolt must be removed in order to remove the shifter arm - loosening it is not enough!
2. Pull the shifter arm free of the splined shifter shaft.
3. Carefully remove the left side cover. Start by pulling the bottom front post free from its grommet. Next pull the bottom rear post free. Pull the bottom slightly toward you - but not too far, or you risk snapping off the remaining post! Pull the cover free from the metal post at the top front, then gently work the top rear post free of its grommet, and pull the side cover away.
4. Pull the front engine cover free of its grommet. Pull the cover to the rear to disengage its locking tab, the pull it away from the bike.
5. To remove the fairing front cover, press inward at the center of the top of the cover. This will expose the posts seated in the grommets at the top corners.
6. Gently pull the top corners away, one at a time, to unseat the posts from their grommets.
7. Once both posts are unseated, remove the front cover.
8. Remove the screws from each side of the under cover.
9. Remove the center screw from the under cover, then pull the under cover free.
10. Remove the three acorn nuts from the bottom of the exhaust shield.
11. Remove the bolt holding the front of the exhaust shield in place, immediately behind the front crash bar mount point.
12. Remove the bolt holding the rear of the exhaust shield in place.
13. On the bottom of the exhaust shield, there are very thin metal washers, two on each stud, holding the exhaust shield in place. Remove each of these. It is impossible to remove these without bending and creasing them - try to keep from destroying them as much as possible. They can be flattened and reused during reassembly.
14. Pull the exhaust shield free of the studs, and remove the exhaust shield. If you have foot warmers as shown in this picture, they can remain connected.
15. As you can see the shifter shaft is quite long, and filthy.
16. I suggest you pull the drain tubes out of their holder to give you extra clearance. While you're at it, go ahead and drain them. You did know you're supposed to drain these as part of regular maintenance, right?
17. The pinch bolt holding the dogleg bracket onto the inner splined shaft is just like the one holding the shift lever on the outer splined shaft: it has to be removed completely for the bracket to be pulled free. It's a little tough to get at.
18. One method to get at it is to use a wobble socket extension.
19. With a wobble extension, the socket can tilt at the end, allowing you to go in at an angle to the bolt being removed.
20. A better tool is a universal-joint type extension, which works at any angle.
21. I temporarily pushed the shift lever back onto the shaft, then propped it up as high as it would go, to help make the bolt face upward more, and aid in its removal.
22. Fit your tool into the space and remove the pinch bolt. The removal and replacement of this bolt is the toughest part of the entire procedure. It took me about five minutes of work to do.
23. Make sure you remove the bolt, not just loosen it, or the dogleg bracket will not pull off the shaft.
24. Pull the outer shaft outward to remove it from the inner splined shaft, and maneuver it free of the bike.
25. The shaft will be covered in oil and grime.
26. I used my favorite all-purpose solvent, brake cleaner, to clean the grime away.
27. For removing the old seal, you'll need a sharp pick or a screw tool as shown. In a pinch, a drywall screw can also be used.
28. Carefully use the pick to pull the old seal free. Be careful not to nick the aluminum case! In my case, the old seal had already worked its way partway out, which had contributed to the oil leak. If you can't get it free with the pick, screw your tool (or drywall screw) gently into the seal and pull it out.
29. The seal will easily pull off the shaft.
30. As you can see, the difference in the opening between the old seal and the new seal is quite significant. The old seal had been worn open by the constant movement of the shift shaft.
31. Use some brake cleaner to clean the grime away from where the old seal has been removed.
32. To help guide the insertion of the new seal, use some engine oil to lubricate the shaft and the case.
33. Also add some oil to the inside and outside edges of the new oil seal, to help it slide into place.
34. My fingers aren't long enough to reach the seal, so to push the new seal into place, I used the rounded end of a wrench. You don't want to use anything sharp that might damage the new seal!
35. Gently push the seal over the splined end of the shaft, and into place. On some bikes, you would cover the splined ends with masking tape in order to prevent them from cutting into the seal. However, on the GL1500, the non-splined portion of the shaft where the seal sits is quite a bit larger in diameter than the splined portion, so this isn't a problem.
36. The seal should go in flat, so if one side starts pushing in farther than the other, make sure you correct it as it pushes in. Push on one side, and then the other, to make sure it is in even and flat.
37. This new seal is fully seated - a far cry from the condition of the old seal, which had worked its way partially out (shown on the right):
38. Maneuver the dogleg bracket up into the shaft space.
39. Make sure the split in the pinch bolt is exactly straight up, then push the bracket onto the splined shaft. Before going any further, you should probably temporarily install the foot lever on the end of the outer shaft, to double check that you have the inner bracket installed correctly. Having the inner bracket off by a single spline one way or the other will make a fairly significant difference in shift pedal height, so you want to make sure you get this right before tightening it into place!
40. An old mechanic's trick: To install a bolt somewhere deep inside an area you can't reach, first put a piece of shop towel in your socket, then push the head of the bolt in on top of the shop towel. It will hold the bolt tightly in place, so that you can maneuver it into position and start tightening it.
41. Prop up the shifter again to raise the dogleg bracket angle make the pinch bolt installation easier.
42. Carefully tighten the pinch bolt. It would be easy to cross thread this bolt being that you're coming in from an angle, and are somewhat removed from it physically, so feel for resistance that might indicate you are cross-threaded. Once you've "bit" in a few threads, pull your socket off and visually check that the bolt is going in straight, and not at an angle that would indicate it is cross-threaded.
43. Now's a good time to reinsert the drain hoses into their bracket, so that you don't forget later on. Also, if you are installing the shifter pivot brace (a good idea!), now is the time when you would do so.
44. Remove the shift pedal from the outer shaft spline, and reinstall the exhaust heat shield, the metal washers and acorn nuts.
45. Install and tighten the rear heat shield bolt.
46. Install and tighten the front heat shield bolt.
47. Lift the under cover into place.
48. Insert the center screw to hold the under cover in place.
49. Ensure the posts at the front, on the bottom of the lower cowls fit into the holes on the top of the under cover (visible at the front edge where the lower cowl and under cover meet) - on both sides! Once the posts are in place, replace and tighten the screws on either side.
50. Make sure the tabs at the bottom of the front cover fit behind the ridge of the under cover, and that the tab on the bottom center of the front cover fits into the slot in the under cover. Align the front cover, then press the posts on either side into their respective grommets.
51. Push the engine cover's tab into its slot, then push it into its grommet.
52. Replace the side cover, starting at the top, then pushing the lower posts into their grommets.
53. Place the shift lever back onto the splined end of the shift shaft. Make sure the triangle on the shift lever lines up with the dot on the end of the shift shaft. Reinstall the shift lever pinch bolt.
54. Tighten the shift lever pinch bolt.
