new bike, tranny problems?

[midniteridr]

Hi all. I just bought a Concourse today and joined the group today. Just started riding today after a several year break due to a bad accident.
Anyway, bought a bike today after an obviously too short test drive. It's an 04 Concours Anyway, I had a 40 mile hwy ride to get home after the purchase. After a few miles, I stopped and bought some WD-40. When I went to leave again. The bike didn't wanna go in gear. Finally got it going but it would slip under hard acceleration. Got it home and same thing. Sounded like it was going into gear, but wouldn't go. Tried after it set a while and it rides, but seems to slip
Question is, could this be because it hadn't been ridden in awhike,because he has synthetic fluid in it, or did I just get SCR*wed?
 Any help would be appreciated.....

[T Cro ®]

Going to need more info to be of more help. Using synthetic oil does not cause slip, using the wrong grade of oil can cause slip though. Does it feel like a clutch slipping or does it have a toothy feel? You might have a worn rear wheel spline hub. But the difficulty with shifting is usually more of a clutch related issue. The tyranny is near bullet proof on these bikes but the shift linkage is flimsy and if worn causes very poor shift quality.

[Daytona_Mike]

You have two problems- putting it in gear and slipping. You may have air in your clutch line. More likely dirt and crud which can get into the two tiny ports in the master cylinder piston. This issue is quite common on these bikes when the fluid gets old.  Sounds like the first thing you need to do is look at your clutch and brake fluids. Those fluids are supposed to be changed every 2 years. If there is any discoloration ( anything  other than 'clear') flush out the old and install  fresh fluid. A Mity-Vac is very handy for this. 

[kzz1king]

When mine started to slip it was the star spring. Mine shifted well though and the problem was intermittent.
Wayne

[RFH87_Connie]

When mine started to slip it was the star spring. Mine shifted well though and the problem was intermittent.
Wayne

Mine did almost the same thing.  Mine did however kind of "clack" into gear on occasion.  The star spring is not an overly complicated fix.  The hardest part is to get the big nut off.  Search the forum for a few differnt ways to get it off.  Impact works the best if you have access to one.  Otherwise, a big breaker bar will be your best friend.

And like Mike said, the fluid ports might be getting clogged.  Old fluid turns into a kind of hard resin sometimes and floats around in chunks.

Both of these items are worth looking into on an unknown bike.  It might even have the original 10 year old fluid in it.

[throb]

Not to throw addition worry at you, but you just say the PO put synthetic fluid in it (the engine/gear case I assume), but do you know what he used for lube?  Not to open a whole can of worms here, but usually using the oil meant for cars/light trucks (non-JASO rated) could cause the wet clutch in the Connie to slip because of the friction modifiers the manufacturer adds.  I use Shell Rotella 5w/40 synthetic which is made for diesel motors and contains no friction modifiers.  Lots of others run this in their bikes too or just oil made specifically for MC's.  Again, I know this is a point of debate and contention, but since I can buy a gallon of the Rotella full syn for the same or less than anything else, why chance it?

[T Cro ®]

Not to throw addition worry at you, but you just say the PO put synthetic fluid in it (the engine/gear case I assume), but do you know what he used for lube?  Not to open a whole can of worms here, but usually using the oil meant for cars/light trucks (non-JASO rated) could cause the wet clutch in the Connie to slip because of the friction modifiers the manufacturer adds.  I use Shell Rotella 5w/40 synthetic which is made for diesel motors and contains no friction modifiers.  Lots of others run this in their bikes too or just oil made specifically for MC's.  Again, I know this is a point of debate and contention, but since I can buy a gallon of the Rotella full syn for the same or less than anything else, why chance it?

Using Energy Conserving oils such as 10W30 or 5W30 can cause clutch slippage whereas using 10W40 or heavier automotive oils is not going to cause clutch slippage or at least I've not seen any proof thereof. Been riding bikes for 30 years and have never used JASO rated oil including Mobil 1 with no known clutch slippage.

[Jet86]

when the star spring on my 86 broke it went into 3 or 4 pieces and one of them got lodged and caused slipping, does your clutch lever have a pulsating feel to it? if so then i would bet on the star spring.

[Daytona_Mike]

I dont think he is coming back or he returned the bike maybe.
He left just one post never to be seen again. The horror of it all!