I have a 1998 Fatboy and I recently pulled the outer primary cover to fix a leaking gasket. When I pulled the drain plug it was full of metal shavings. I noticed that the starter pinion gear and clutch ring gear were both missing teeth. The clutch ring gear was replaced in September of last year by a mechanic and the starter is only little older than that.

When I hit the starter with the cover off it looks like the starter gear is spinning before it engages the clutch ring. I was doing some research and I'm thinking it could be that it was not shimmed properly when it was installed. When I pulled out the jack shaft by hand it only engages about half way into the clutch ring. I ordered a new clutch ring gear set and I'm just looking for some advise on this. I'm hoping that this will fix the problem from research it looks like a pretty common issue with these bikes. Thanks for your time.

 

Do you have a manual? This is a great website to check parts.
http://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche....ARTER-ASSEMBLY

 

Yes I have the manual it doesn't have any measurements for the alignment of the gear. I found some measurements online about how much gap to have.