After a couple of years of listening to the rattle from my shifter area (and growing tired of keeping my boot pressed against the shift lever to keep it quiet while idling) I decided to try SoftBrake's solution--which I saw mentioned in an older forum post.

I wanted to share my experience here because I see a lot of posts about this rattling issue and hopefully this will be useful to anyone looking for a fix.

SoftBrake makes a spring loaded chrome spacer that replaces the OEM rubber spacer on the shift shaft. Because the spacer is spring-loaded, it constantly tightens itself against your shift lever and eliminates that embarrassing rattle.

I also went ahead and upgraded the shifter arm with a 1" extended billeted, polished aluminum arm (also from SoftBrake). The softer metal makes for a much better fit onto the splines of the shifter shaft--in contrast to the cheaper OEM lever which does not tighten down as easily due to the harder metal.

Before you start, you should isolate the shifter lever (the one on the inner side that rests at 6 and 12 o'clock) and try to move the shifter pedal up and down. If you have even a very slight play there, you might consider replacing the shifter shaft when you do this. Pingel makes a nice greasable version if you want to spend the bucks. This excess play is the result of the poorly mated OEM shift arm with the shift shaft. The metal the OEM arm is made of is too hard to really allow you tighten it down enough against the splines for a good, solid fit and it eventually begins that awful rattling. This in turn wears those splines on the shaft.

Removing the shaft is easy. After loosening the bolt on the shift lever you can wiggle that loose and let it hang there. Once you do that, the entire shaft just slides out no need to open up the case or drain any fluids.

Apply anti-seize compound to the middle area of the new shaft and re-insert. Reattach the shifter arm. Slide SoftBrake's spring-loaded spacer onto the outboard side of the shaft, keeping the spring to the inboard side so that the chrome rests against your shift lever arm. Push the new shifter lever up against the new spacer snugly, leaving just a tiny bit of play. Apply blue LocTite to the shift shaft splines (not the bolt) and tighten to spec.

This is where I encountered a problem.

I believe it was due to a slight machining defect of the new billeted lever arm screw hole. Although the bolt could be inserted and screwed all the way in without installing the lever, once the lever was on the shaft, the splines protruded slightly into the machined screw hole.

I destroyed the threads on three bolts before I realized this was happening. I ended up grinding a very small flat spot on the shaft where the screw needed to pass and it worked perfectly once I did that. I did notify SoftBrake of the issue but have not heard back.

Once I was done, the rattling was completely gone. It is so quiet that I guess I really didn't realize how much of my bike's rattling was coming from that area.

The shifting is much better, very smooth and quieter. Finding neutral got easier, and because I got the 1" extended version it allows me more room on the floorboard. They also make a 1.5" and a 2.0" extension, and they offer arms with slots, holes, grooves or smooth billeted.

SoftBrake makes a nice product and I'd recommend it--but with the caveat that you examine the fit of the lever on the shifter shaft very carefully before you start to tighten that bolt. They sell the item off of their website and you can also buy from JP Cycles. They were very helpful when I called to place the order and they manufacture and ship from Idaho, so it's nice to be able to buy something made in the USA.

I paid around $18 for the spacer, $85 for the extended lever and around $17 for the OEM replacement shaft. I used a polished stainless bolt when I reinstalled the new lever because it looked nicer-and that ran about $3.

NOTE: the spring-loaded spacer is the part that will eliminate your rattle. There are two sizes/part numbers. One is not as long as the other. The shorter version is used if you have removed your heel shifter and you are using a chrome cap on the exposed end of the shifter shaft. If you use a heel-shifter you'll need to order the longer one.

I also want to add that I had a hard time locating a dealer that had the OEM shifter shaft in stock. I hate to be one of those guys that reads too much into this, but I found it odd that three of the local dealers in my area were out of stock on this part--I guess there are two ways to look at it. Either this is something that isn't ordered a lot, or it is. Only having a little over 12K on my 2009 FLHX I would expect this part to last a lot longer.

I hope this helps anyone out there wanting to resolve this rattle.

 

I didn't have a rattle, but I have the Softbrake 2 inch extended shifter and spring loaded spacer. It's quality stuff and makes the bike work better. I didn't have any alignment issues - just bolted right on.

The 2 inch extended brake pedal works just as well.