Recently my Road King Classic has been giving me a bit of trouble mostly while downshifting. I want to go from 4th to 3rd, to slow down, and so I clutch in, downshift, clutch out, but the engine is idling. Clutch in, downshift, and I'm in 2nd. It doesn't do it to me all the time, but it has been doing it more to me in the last week or two. Also, but less frequently, upshifting to 3rd results in the same condition - being 'caught' between 2nd and 3rd gear which feels like neutral.

I'm guessing something is worn. Any ideas on what, or any possible adjustments? Within the last 1k miles the chaincase was serviced with new fluid and factory adjustment of the primary chain (previously was too tight, the tech said).

 

Sounds like shift pawl.

 

Can you elaborate? Not familiar.

 

the shift pawl moves the gearsets inside the tranny to select specific "gears".

You may be in a situation where servicing it now will be less expensive than replacing mangled parts.



or consider a 6 speed upgrade ( this would require a motor a little stronger than the stock 55 HP to take advantage of a 6th gear)

mike

 

Thanks for the info. Sounds like the pawl can be adjusted and that 3rd gear issues are common with the 5-speed. Another suggestion is clutch adjustment, but I'm tending to think the pawl might be the issue.

It seems my bike has plenty of power to operate a 6th gear, on the highway at least; I wish there was a 6th gear as the engine is screaming along at 70+ mph on the highway.

 

...not screaming- those motors will run at 4000+ rpms all day, every day.

If you have had headwork and cams a 6 might be the way to go- if you just have a stage 1 or the stock heads, you probably don;t have enough grunt for an overdrive.

Pawl- if you are handy all the specs are in the manual- otherwise find a local Indy who can do it for you.

mike

 

Just seems like they're screaming, I guess. I bought my bike from the original owner who claimed it was stage 2 but didn't have the paper work from that job, so, who knows. The indy who did replace the cam bearings recently said 'it felt pretty snappy for an 88" but never checked to verify, since I mentioned it after the work was done. Without knowing how much additional reduction 6th gear would provide, it does seem it would go along just fine with the power it has now. But I'll probably leave it alone. I do have the manual and will attempt the adjustment myself.

Thanks

 

You have plenty of motor, we have a six speed behind a stock 70" shovelhead and it pulls it just fine. As long as your at 2600 rpm's or better you will be good to go. Somethings to check when you are in the trans, shifter pawl, shifter pawl adjustment, bent or worn shift forks, bent fork rod, also take a good look at the dog teeth on the gears. These are the engaging teeth on the sides of the gears some have male teeth some have female pockets. If the corners on the male dog teeth get rounded it can cause it to jump in and then out of the female dog pocket and you will find your self between gears.

 

my 06 road king was down shifting funny,not hitting the gears right.I thought the trans was going wen the shifting linkage fell off the little ball.i'm thinking it got so sloppy is why the shifting problem.new one on and feels real tight and smooth,something to check out before dumping lots of cash.

 

Wow the minute I read your post I was like wow that is my bike same problem. I dont get it from downshifting but It does it shifting into 3rd and bam theres nuetral

I was thinking about draining the trans fluid and go back to Redline Shock proof. I had an Indy talk me into some Belray fluid. Going to try the shock proof and see what that does