Oh please don't misunderstand, I appreciate the advice, just hoping for best case.

Do you know if the North American XT600 engine or internals are the same as the 34L?

Wondering if you can pull the gears and shafts from a low mileage XT600 (if you could find one) and use them in the Tenere.

I have checked the filter very very closely and there is nothing in it. Nothing major of note on the drain plug magnet either...

The spalling of fifth will be small bits that won't stand out as something coming apart, til it get really bad. I'm not sure if the US xt transmission has the exact same gearing but I bet it is and would drop right in. The thing with the fifth going out is the amount of highway miles put on over in Europe, which does tend to chug more from low rpms for the power needed. Over here the bikes don't get those kind of miles, we tend to do more short runs, to/from work, and some offroad playing, not a whole lot of time in fifth. The newer E-start models did get used a bit more and they were geared higher, then fifth started going out on them also.

Never head about issues with E-models. I use a 16 tooth front sprocket to lower rpm's at interstate ect on my 2003 model, and im just over 150.000km without issues...

The 3TB I got had a spalled fifth , The last transmission I'd seen on Ebay over here for one also had a chewed up fifth.

T drilled the banjo bolts out .015" bigger to allow a bit more oil to the tranny so maybe it'll help.

What is spalled?

As in the surface was chipping and flaking off.

Jens your bike is a 4pt , maybe it had been solved on those.

You replaced the gears themselves did you?

This bike came from EU some years ago. They never were a North American market item in 34L/55W trim.

It does have some distance on it, 92k km, but it's not the original engine. First one was removed for, you guessed it, spalling on gears.

Which banjos were drilled yours?

Thanks.

Yea i would think so, the 3tb had already been out there for 5years and i quess they knew about problems.

I drilled the 2 that hold the oil line from the clutch cover to the transmission, I am trying to remember if the kick start motor had that line. I'm drawing a blank right now. Been working on the newer ones so much lately. I think they do ???

Not until the 88-89 model year. THUMPTHUMP

I just saw this, but I guess that was meant as newer than the old non E-start models, and not the newest of the E-models.

3tb 5th gear issues seems rare tho'. Is anyone certain of which parts was upgraded? There's been a lot of talk about bad heat-treating of the gears, oil-starvation ect ect...

The XT600 transmission seems to be a direct carry-over from 550. 5th gear has been modified over the life of the 600.
The following is what i think happened, in roughly this order:

1986, 5th pinion prefix changed to 1VJ, suggesting there was a problem.

1988, 1st series 3AJ, larger oil pump.

1989, 2nd series 3AJ, outside oil line fitted to supply gears with pressured and cooler oil. (silver casings but not fitted to 2KF)

Not sure when next mod took place. A change was made in primary gear ratio to run the transmission faster. The sprocket ratio was changed from 15 : 40 to 14 : 40 to correct the overall ratio. This reduces the torque load in the transmission.

Somewhere new 5th gears were made prefixed 2JT. Tooth numbers changed from 27/24 to 24/19, so can be fitted in pairs only. Tooth shape may have change too.

90s, wider gears with prefix 3YF were used in the 4pt and maybe earlier.
Something could be linked to when the clutch cable moved from left to right hand side but it is not clear.

All XT 600 transmissions are basically the same. Early kickstart bikes had coarse splined output shafts. Electric start bikes had a longer output shaft, and maybe a fine spline with nut.
It is likely all XT600 got these changes worldwide at roughly the same years.

I am very open to correction and keen to know more.

I fitted a 5Y1 and a 1VJ pair of 5th gears just over 2 years ago, while still learning. 32,000 km later they are howling

2JT gears are unobtainable now, so 3YF will have to do. This time i will take photos and make notes

p

That's a good synopsis of the XT600 5th gear problems Pete.
I thought I'll add my 2 cents worth.

The 1996 - 1997 4PT1 3TB had the clutch cable on the left hand side of the engine & did still have a 5th gear wear problem, although not as bad as the earlier models.

The 1997 onward 4PT2/3/4 DJ02 had the clutch cable on the right hand side of the engine (which looks like the XT660) and they had no 5th gear wear problems.

Bob

__________________
Remember that Assumption is the mother of all f**k-ups.

The us version ,'90 thru '95 were basically E-start 2kf models to every other country so they are the very first 3TBs. I bet the DJ02 gears are very close to the 660's. I know mine were just a little narrower but otherwise would pretty much fit, so if they widened the last version that should be a match. Anyone compare the 2 over there? We don't have the bike motor so I don't know if they are different than the quads.

Pete et al: Thanks! Good info.

The 1VJ, 5Y1 etc are simply designations for certain years are they not?

I am lucky in that I have some spares, but if I'm just fitting the same flawed gears, then I'm just resetting the clock for another failure I suppose.

Sounding like some of the newer models can have a similar issue if lots of highway miles in 5th are a regular occurance?

Thanks!