MZ/MuZ Riders

My 89 ETZ150 goes into gear ok but the gear lever will not return - my guess having done a little research is it could be the Gear Selector Spring maybe?

Is this a fair guess and is it an easy enough thing to rectify etc or is it a major job at a shop and big money?

Cheers then

Yep, sounds like you have the diagnosis spot on. Bad news is it's a crankcase split job to get at the spring (I think), good news is that you can wrap a bungee round the gear lever and hook it onto the frame somewhere as a quick and dirty fix till you have to split the cases at some time in the future.

Are these return springs a weak point and if so is there an aftermarket alternative that is better?

Are they a weak point? Well yes and no. They are one of the parts more likely to fail, but we are talking about bikes that are 20, 30 or more years old!. Replace it and it is likely to last another 20 or 30 years.


It's just a PITA when it happens, and a PITA that you have to split the crankcases to replace it! I rode a Supa5 with a broken spring for about a year, it became second nature to flick the lever back after selecting a gear.

I take the point that they might last 20 years but has anyone found a better quality replacement spring as these do seem to be a weak point. About to replace one on an ETZ125 with only 20,000 miles on it.