I had a similar problem on my 2001 Busa. It got to the point that it did'nt matter how I aproached 2nd, at around 6k and higher it would start to slip out of gear. I had about 12-15k hard miles and beginner miles at that. After calling around diff. dealers and asking on other forums I was told the cush drives,linkage, clutch plates, clutch slave cylinder, spockets and chain would all need to be checked, All checked out fine. So then I came to realize something serious was going on. Think about it. If it was anything else it would happen in other gears too. Nope just 2nd. I got an estimate of around $800 to a Grand to replace 2nd gear only from the shop. That's not including any other parts that may need to be replaced. So I dealt with it for about two years and then I came across a Haynes Service and Repair Manual on ebay for Busas. I studied that book like a grad student. I ordered all the necessary parts and on the week of July 4th 2006 I went at it. By the way, the parts need to be ordered about 3 or so months ahead of time the shift forks were 3 months back order alone. I went ahead and bought a used tranny off ebay for around $250 and had it back cut at my little secret shop. I then ordered all shift forks, shift fork shafts, gaskets, upgrade my clutch components to the current models, shift drum, new chain, sprockets, shift spring, shift cam arm, pair valve block offs and a full D&D 4-2-2 system all total around $1,700 to $1,900. The dealer said it was a 12hr job, took me 3.5 days with family around and chasing kids around after they still my parts lying around. I had to make a few special sockets to remove the engine. The actual process of removing the tranny took 5-10 min. It was removing all the other things to get to it that took the most time. I am glad I got the chance to open here up and experience it, and I owe a big thanks to the people who wrote that haynes manual it was very helpful. I sent my tranny out to have its 2nd gear back cut and sent my old shift forks, shafts and drum to have them gauged. One of the shafts were bent, the drum was worn not bad but replaced all the same, 2nd and 3rd gear was worn and the forks were ground down. He said it can come from resting your foot on the petal or a bent fork. My point is this, if you are going to do it your self order everything other wise your bike will sit for a long time waiting for something to come off back order. But when I put that backcut tranny in she shifts like butter. Sometimes you don't even feel it go in gear but its in there. Manufactures don't backcut 2nd for some reason but all other gears. May for return business, I don't know.
I just let one of my buddies with a 04 limited ed busa buy mine with a trade of course. He only had about 1500 hard miles on his bike. He let some other people ride most of the time. But I saved him from getting oiled up big time. He came out spending about $1200 at the dealer (New rear tire). They kept his bike for about a month and a half. The reason I did'nt do it for him is if something was to happen to him or the bike I don't think I could handle it. Some people say the busa is the only bike that has this problem but all bikes have it. Return business I guess.
If you want some more info about doing it yourself let me know at
jedmond@3rddoor.com
