On my way to work this morning, I tried to downshift. The toe lever went down, and stayed down, but the bike did not shift. The heel shifter was the same way - I could push on it and it would depress, but the bike would not upshift. It felt like the shift levers were totally disconnected from the linkage and flopping around.

There was no place to pull over, so I made it to work with wayyyyyy too much clutch friction-zoning and engine lugging. (Stop-and-go city traffic in fourth gear is no fun). By the time I got there, it felt like the clutch was slipping all the time - don't know if that was just heat related or if I damaged something by riding the clutch too much.

Anyhow, the bike is parked, still warm, and here are the current symptoms:

1. Clutch lever is heavy, with no free play.

2. The shifter works again (!) but only from first to second and back. I can't shift it to third. As far as I can tell, the linkage is intact, but when I try to upshift to third (parked, with the engine off), all the external parts move, but it doesn't ever go into third gear.


I have a decent tool kit, and I'm considering doing a clutch adjustment here in the parking garage and trying to limp home and then tear it down myself. The alternative is a tow to a dealer and pay them.

Thoughts?

 

Trying to shift through the gears with the bike not moving will be near impossible. The main shaft has to be spinning to complete shifts. Normally when a shifter goes down and stays down it means either the linkage is binding or the shifter pawl spring broke. What year and model? If you were taking off in forth gear you more then likely smoked the clutch. An adjustment might help at least enough to get it home.

 

Aftermath - I put it in second, started up and drove 26 miles down the highway at 30mpg to the dealer. I'm sure a lot of people weren't happy about that speed, but only one guy honked. At one point, two sportbike riders fell in behind me and kept traffic off my tail for about 15 miles - nice guys.

Turns out the shaft that connects the shift pedal lever to the inner lever that connects to the linkaged had bad splines on the the back side. Probably from me stomping on the heel shifter so much. Checking the tightness of the inner lever to the shaft isn't called out in the service manual, but I'm going to check it from now on. Once it gets a little loose, the lever rubs on the shaft splines and slowly wears them down. There was enough friction left at the connection point for the linkage to work, but only when the engine was turned off.

Anyhow, I'm back on the road, but I'll need to adjust the clutch this weekend. I might buy an extra shaft and carry it with me for repairs in the future, assuming I can swap 'em easily on the side of the road.

 

Could you clarify this?

 

That is a crappy as* design, I put a better lever on mine.

 

We have a better shift lever if your bike is 06 or older. 1-877-640-2004

 

Stop 'stomping' on the lever. Poor thing! Changing gear is something best done wearing carpet slippers, not hob-nailed boots......

 

That's something I could never really understand when I first got into Harleys...I see some guys derive immense pleasure just by heavily stomping on the levers..I was starting to think that was some kinda macho thingy with the Harley guys...ah well...

 

I think most riders that stomp on the heel shifter don`t even realize how much force they are putting on the lever.

Save the splines...toss the heel shifter.

 

All mine does is stop my left foot from sliding off the back of the footboard, it's worn on the front, not the top!