check and make sure the knuckle is clearing all surrounding bolts and or parts. its very common when re-installing, to push the knuckle too far toward the engine, thus obstructing its travel. also make sure your rod/lever is adjusted properly, and not too far up or down.

 

I made sure that nothing was obstructing the knuckle's movement as I was adjusting and troubleshooting. I also adjusted the shift rod and lever for proper clearance & movement. When I'm depressing the lever from high gears to neutral, I hear a "click" each time but from neutral down to first there is no "click" and it stays in neutral. :no

 

Get some pics up of the insalled rearsets :fact

 

I removed it to lube the bearing side that connects to the shift knuckle. Tomorrow I'll reinstall the stock shifter to be sure it still shifts correctly, then I'll remove it and reinstall the Vortex, take pics and post them here.

I checked a few pics that I found online and everything appears to be inline. It looks just like this one below (I'll post mine tomorrow).

 

It sounds like an assembly error.
I would try the longer rod at see how that one is.
I can't remember which rod I had on mine, I am not at home right now to find pics from my previous 06 but here is the closest I can find in my photobucket pics.

It doesn't take too long to swap the rod out, double check everything including the bolt attaching the shift lever to the rear set itself. pivot point.
I still want to say it has to do with the rod adjustment or length.
Hard to tell without seeing your install

 

Thanks for the pic, looks exactly like how mine was connected. Unfortunately I don't have the 10.5" shift rod which I believe was for reverse (GP) shift outside of the frame.

Hopefully I can get this corrected tomorrow as Saturday is supposed to be 49 degrees and sunny. It's been a loooong Winter.

 

By any chance did you take the actual shift knuckle off at any point? You know, the piece that the rod connects to that is attached to the toothed rod coming out of the trans....
If so, maybe take it off and move it one tooth counter clockwise?
I am trying to remember mine, I would take it apart several times for certain mods and all, and I think the same thing happened to me while adjusting the rod. That's why I say it could be the rod or its adjustment. Kneel down, loosen the nuts on the rod (oh man that sounds gay) and turn the rod and push down on the shifter every slight turn you make on the rod. keep trying til it clicks, then you know you're in the right area of adjustment.
I know you tried this already, but try again. The rod doesn't have to be even on the threads of each part its attached to.

 

Yeah, I removed the knuckle and repositioned it to be sure it was at roughly 90 degrees and I wanted to be sure that nothing was impeding the movement forward or back during shifting. I'll play around with it tomorrow when I reinstall the Vortex after I try the stock again.

I appreciate everyone's input! :thumbup

 

I replaced one end of my Vortex shift rod with one of the ends from the stock shift rod because the bearing wasn't moving as freely even after I lubed it. Assuming this would correct the shift to 1st gear issue I reinstalled everything. No dice. Now I'll put the stock shifter on to troubleshoot. This has turned into a PITA.

Here are the pics...nothing rubs or is blocked when shifting. It just won't click into first from Neutral.

 

it looks as if the shift link is sitting too high...so when you push foward it looks like there is not enough room to move because the further foward the knuckle sits foward the higher the rod sits. i know you tried to adj to 90 degrees but try adj the knuckle back some say (5 oclock instead of 6) that may fix it. along with explain why the other gears work because you are pulling back the link causing it to drop giving it more room....other then that it looks right....

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll try that. It has no problem shifting from N up through the gears and back down to N but I'll reposition the knuckle to see if it helps.

 

see the difference in the gap

 

Pulling the knuckle closer to 5 to lower the shift rod didn't work because the bolt in the engine blocks the shift rod's movement when attempting to shift from N to higher gears. Tob bring the shift rod down, I used the second hole (lower) on the lever. That brought the rod down (see pic) but it still won't shift to first gear out of N.

 

hmmm does it shift in to 1st when you have it disconnected form rearset moving the shift rod by hand? also when the shift rod is disconnected does the shifter move down freely

 

No, it won't shift to first by hand. The shift lever swings freely when the rod is disconnected. Gonna try the stock shift now.

 

i dont know i still think it has to do with the positioning of the knuckle but let us know what happens when you put the stock rear set back on.

 

Silly question but did you try to shift into first with the bike running and the vortex sets on?

 

Yes, I did...

I continued monkeying around with it and noticed that when I expanded the Vortex shift rod (which is shorter than the stock rod) I hadn't locked the nuts on either end of the rod so that, and using the lower hole on the shifter to raise the rod position through the frame, may have resolved the problem as I was able to engage 1st gear. I also switch one of the bearing rod ends with the stock rod which may have helped.

I'll take the bike out tomorrow to see if I can shift through all of the gears and report back.

I really appreciate everyone who responded and provided advice. This is a great forum! :riding

 

quick question about vortex rearset, i have moved the foot peg to top front most position, now i have problem to lower down the gear lever, so my question is do i need to purchase a new shorter rod to lower the gear lever? (it does not have anymore adjustment that allows to shorten the distance between gear lever bolt (rearset)and gear lever (engine)

thanks