Riding the Murphymobile

 

Not long after telling people I just kick my tires and ride, my bike
fell apart.  I'd noticed last summer that every now and then the
tranny would act like it was stuck in gear, not until my Concourse did
when it was cold.  I'd made a mental note to check into it but never
did.

The occasional stick turned chronic during my ride last week, with the
stick occurring so frequently that I was worrying the tranny was going
to leave me stranded on the side of the road.  I didn't check it out
over the weekend of my return, riding it to work instead with
frequently sticking.  Leaving work Monday, while sitting there letting
it warm up, I remembered that I'd wanted to take a look at the
linkage.  It didn't take a second to notice the shiny , deep groove on
the primary inner case.  Closer inspection revealed the shifter shaft
lever had worked itself loose from the splined transmission shift
shaft and attempted to walk off of the shaft, which resulted in the
hell-toe lever to tranny shift lever linkage rubbing on the inner
primary case. Apparently my stuck transmission was the linkage butting
up against the primary case.

Here's a pic I took after getting home, with the linkage unbolted.

http://home.gci.net/~robnsue/Misc/Groove.jpg

I attempted to tighten the lever onto the shaft, but the pinch bolt is
about as tight as it's going to get.  Reading, it's apparently not
uncommon for the lever to walk itself around to the point where its
splined opening becomes too big to tighten.  It's less common, but not
unheard of, for the splined shaft itself to become worn from a loose
lever working on it.

Phase one will be to replace the lever with a new one.  Phase two,
should the splined shaft prove to be ruined, will be to replace that
too.

Fortunately for me during my trip, the primary case is close enough to
the lever to prevent the shift lever from coming completely off the
shaft.  Unfortunately, that means I can't replace the lever without
first removing the primary case.  Removing the primary case means
removing the clutch, primary drive chain, and compensating assembly so
I can get to the inner case half.  Harley's manual says to remove the
clutch and compensating nuts with an air gun.  I've only got an
electric one, so will try that.  We'll see whether or not  I finally
buy a compressor for the garage.

Picked up the parts tonight.  If anyone knows an easier way to replace
the lever, short of stealing another bike and swapping the license
plate, I'm all ears.

Those who own FLT parts and service manuals might be interested to
know I found an apparent conflict in the 1997 manuals.  The service
manual specifically states that the "offsets" of the two outer shift
forks should point out toward the case sides.  The parts manual
however, shows one of these two outer forks with the offset pointing
in.  Refer to the parts manual diagram labeled Gear Shifter (page 38
in mine), service manual Figures 7-7 and 7-8 (once again, 1997
manual), and the steps references these figures.  I noticed this while
discovering what was needed to replace the splined shaft.

Robert

 


| Phase one will be to replace the lever with a new one.  Phase two,
| should the splined shaft prove to be ruined, will be to replace that
| too.
|
| Fortunately for me during my trip, the primary case is close enough to
| the lever to prevent the shift lever from coming completely off the
| shaft.  Unfortunately, that means I can't replace the lever without
| first removing the primary case.  Removing the primary case means
| removing the clutch, primary drive chain, and compensating assembly so
| I can get to the inner case half.  Harley's manual says to remove the
| clutch and compensating nuts with an air gun.  I've only got an
| electric one, so will try that.  We'll see whether or not  I finally
| buy a compressor for the garage.

Watch the thread pitch.  Some bikes have left hand threads on parts like
that.

 

Vito wrote:

  Depending on what year the Harley is it might be left hand thread on the
clutch hub , or it might be a snap ring on a splined shaft . On replacing
that shift arm , use some green sleeve-retaining loctite on the splines when
you put the new one on . And even then expect it to loosen over time , mine
has ...
 Oh , and in case you didn't know , a wedge of hard rubber caught in the
primary chain/sprocket will lock it up so you can get that comp nut and
clutch hub nut off . I don't like impact wrenches on the comp nut , there
have been cases of them causing magnets in the alternator to come loose .
Not a good thing ...
--
Snag
"90 FLHTCU "Strider"
'39 WLDD "PopCycle"
BS 132/SENS/DOF

 

wrote:


Yeah, the clutch nut is indeed a left handed thread per the manual.


Thanks for the tip about the alternator.  I'll give jamming a try. Our
local State Fair started this Thursday but heavy rain is scheduled.
That coupled with Sue still not walking well means I'll fix the bike
tomorrow instead of hitting the fair.  I missed 3 days of sunny
weather this week thanks to the lever.

Robert

 

Robert Bolton wrote:

Another way to keep the sprockets from rotating is to cut a piece of 1/8 x
3/4 flat steel so that it will catch a tooth at the top on one and the
bottom on the other sprocket . About 4" long if memory serves .

--
Snag
Wannabe Machinist