Venture Royale Transmission Problem

Hello All,

A friend directed me to this site, hopefully to find someone who knows more about my "new" vintage purchase... a 1983 Venture Royale. The bike runs and rides well. The guy I bought it from never disclosed the lost gears, he told me it had its cosmetic problems, though. The plastics on the bike all needed repair, the seat needed to be reupholstered, a new head pipe, etc etc etc. I was fleeced and it is my fault for buying a bike in late Jan in new england and not being able to take it for a proper test ride.

All the cosmetics are done, the bike was tuned, new plugs and such. I took it out for a shake-down ride two weeks ago and I have smooth shifts, neutral to first, second and third. The shift lever moves, but it will not shift into 4th or 5th gear. It is as if they are not there.

Does anyone know about this or have any ideas about what could be causing this? I have done web searches on this specific problems and have 0 results. I have heard about a deficiency with a washer/spacer in 2nd gear, but apparently this will not affect the upper gears, just does not let 2nd mesh right.

Any information would be greatly appreciated, even if it is to confirm my worse fear that I will need to tear the engine down and have the trans rebuilt.

Thanks and I look forward to sharing in this forum.

The Rev