Shifter Issues with an 82 XJ1100

First off, just a quick mention that I've spent some time on this forum already looking around and I'm very glad to have found it. Everybody here seems very cool and I've yet to see one ugly flame war which is very nice to see =)

That being said, I've gotten my hands on an 82 XJ1100 that use to run well (that's for another post) but has always had shifter problems. The bike will shift from neutral all the way up through the gears, but sometimes if you put it in first, it stays in first.

For a long time. Eventually I'll be able to shift into neutral (for no apparent reason whatsoever) and then I just stay away from 1st.

I've searched through shifter issues and have found a bunch of posts that spoke of somewhat similar problems, but this seems like a different situation so I'm hoping for the best..

I should mention that it will occasionally grind going into first or second gear, but after that it's fine.

I've taken the shifter cover off and everything looked fine (not in pieces at least)... What are my next steps from here?

TL; DR - Noob owner has an 82 xj1100 that gets stuck in first and sometimes grinds going into first or second. Not sure where to start...

 

The 1100s have a very clunky transmission to begin with... But it's not uncommon to see worn or bent shift forks and worn gear dogs.
The fine folks over at xs11.com have done some writeups on the shortcomings of the xs/xj1100 transmission and how to deal with them.

What grade oil are you running in it?

 

For now I've just got regular Castrol GTX 20-50...

I'll look into the other site and see what I can find out. Maybe this thing is destined to be a parts bike after all.