First the basics, 2004 Sportster 883, 25000 miles, runs great. I got to work this morning and all was fine. Get on to ride home and there is about 2-3 inches of play in the shifter. Clutch is fine just the shifter is not in the middle anymore, more or less hanging low. Shifting up not a problem, but if I down shift the shifter stay low and I have to pick it up wth my foot before engaging the clutch to down shift again.That make sense? Another example, if the bike is in neutral and I go to shift to 1st, it is difficult becasue the shifter is almost all the way down already. Have to lif the shifter first then engage clutch an dpush shifter down. Any ideas? Thank guys.

 

Is the shifter spinning on the shaft or is the shaft rotated down?

 

No the shifter is not spinning on the shaft,it is securely fashioned to the shaft. It seems after I down shift the shifter/shaft does not return to the central position. I can move the shifter up and down a good 2-3 inches. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I had a problem similar to this, and though it may not be the same for you, it's worth a short.

Check the shifter area for rust or anything between the moving parts. Mine was slightly seized and once I cleaned it the shifter starting functioning properly again.

 

No rust, everything looks clean.

 

wait did it slip? When you look at the shifter on the primary cover.. you have the little lever... does it look like it moved? there is a small screw that keeps it tight if i remember correctly

 

Cav, The lever is not slipping on the shaft (which leads into the primary). I believe that is what you are asking correct? The shaft moves smoothly with the lever. The shifter just moves up and down about 3 inches with no esistance. Driving it home last night it ran fine, no noise from the trans. Just the shifter was down instead of in the middle where it normally is. hard to down shift since the lever is so far down.

 

Hopefully someone who's had a HD trans apart will pipe up, I haven't but I imagine there are either one or two springs in there, one returning it from the up position and one returning it from the bottom position, my guess is one of those has snapped.

 

I had to change out my shifter shaft before. Take a look at a pic of it in te manual. There are 2 springs that are on there. Not sure if those are what return it into the right place. Might be that one of them has failed.

I could be way off.

 

the toggle spring has broken ( that is the one that centers the shift shaft )
pull the primary case , replace it .(you will see it )
all your out is the price of the spring , and maybe a primary gasket ..
neither one is expensive