Posted this question on this sites sportster forum and they proved useless so I though I would try one more time.

My son's ran his 1991 883 with no transmission fluid and now the gears are not engaging properly and when the wheel is spun a clicking notice is coming from the transmission in all gears and has no power to the rear wheel. I took the transmission off the bike and found that it looks like the gear dogs are not engaging completely between the gears. Otherwise everything looks fine, no cracked or missing teeth or dogs. Thinking it is the shifter detent. Any one experience something similar.

We know he should not have ran with no trans fluid so let's please get past that part.

 

Ya...those Sportster weenies are worthless turds...

JK, note my 2nd 2-wheeler...

OP; How's the clutch look? If all your gears are meshing correctly and everything seems intact, there's probably something else binding. Might have to tear things down piece by piece & look for the smaller elements. On another note, might be a good time to swap tranny for hardier model and call it an upgrade...?? Good luck!

 

I know you want to get past the no oil thing but during that time of being run with no oil you may have smoked a cage bearing or two and the gears riding on those bearing can no longer move properly.Hows the mainshaft bearing is it spinning freely? The main drive gear bearings?

 

That was only two days ago! You've also posted about a problem that most members will be unable to answer.

It's very difficult to judge sounds and what things feel like over the internet. I suspect your first course of action should be to rebuild with new bearings and seals throughout, then secondly see what the motion of the gears feels like, when operated manually. That may be only the first phase of sorting this out. An alternative is to seek out a local indy, to see if you can find someone local to take the engine to, who is confident of identifying and rectifying what is wrong.

 

I am planning on pulling all of the gears off the shafts and breaking down the shifter drum this weekend and hoping I find something that maybe binding up. I think it goes back to the drum, the shift arm or the clutch since what ever the problem is it effects all gears.

Thanks for the intellegent replies to the question and not just degrading a kid who was trying to do the right thing. The last thing I want to do is disuade him from attempting to maintain his bike.

 

OK, Removed all gears and, shifts arms and bearings and found no problems except the shift arms do seem stiff sliding on the shifter drum near the most out board edge of the drum. Only the outer arm may come in contact with this area so I can't see that effecting all of the dogs from meshing. I did take apart and clean the shifter arm and found out there was alot of small magnet pieces in this area. Looks like a few of the magnets on the rotor have started falling apart so I will replace that. This could be part of the problem. I'm going to break down the clutch next.

 

Now that we are in full winter mode and my riding is no longer a distraction I had a chance to get back into this transmission issue. Found the C-clip that holds the shifter shaft to it's backing plate was missing and have no idea where it went. Replaced and shifting fine now. Also found that the lack of power to the rear wheel and clicking noise was a stripped out drive belt drive sprocket. All is good in the world once more.