My bike has 17,600 miles on it. Yesterday I was riding back from my destination and just happened to stop for lunch in a town that had a Harley Davidson dealer... Tilley's in Statesville, NC. When I stopped for lunch all of a sudden I couldn't get the bike out of 1st or Neutral (this is key...).

Since I bought the extended warranty because I am tired of this kind of crap, I nursed the bike to Tilley's and they took care of it ***** nilly. I have seen others with this problem so I thought I would relate what I have discovered.

It turns out that this is fairly common on Touring bikes with toe heel shifts. The teeth on the shifter shaft get knocked off of the bottom of the spline and so when there is resistance (trying to go into 2nd gear) the shifter works, the lever to the shift linkage works but the bike acts like there are no gears above first. Instead, the shift shaft is turning inside of the shift linkage lever due to the force necessary to put the bike with that wonderful clunking tranny that HD produces into second gear.

The valuable tip that I got from Tilley's that I'm not sure I would have thought of is to turn the shifter shaft 90 degrees (or 180 I suppose) and reinstall the shift levers and the shift linkage lever. This will move the weak spot (the spot where the splines are knocked off) to a different location so that you can at least get home in case you didn't happen to stop in a town with a dealer.

I believe this is a problem resulting from the idea of toe heel shift because when you upshift you are stomping on the heel lever which abuses the splines much more than lifting the lever with your toes.

I also noticed that all of a sudden I seemed to "miss" a shift into 2nd every once in a while. I thought it was me... but maybe it was a warning.

Word to the wise... lube your shifter shaft and dismantle it so you can inspect the splines on both ends as part of your regular maintenance.

C#

 

Don't forget to check the one in back that goes into the trans. Use blue loctite on all these four splines & threads.

 

Take the heel shifter off and throw it away.

 

Whoever is doing your maintenance is not checking the tightness of that shifter allen head screw. If it was loose enough that the shaft twisted in the shifter arm it has already worn the splines. Flipping it over is not going to do much. The splines are worn and you will need a new shifter soon. Check the one on the shifter shaft coming out of the transmission too. That one is a bugger to replace. With the screws tight the heal toe setup works fine. They have been around a long time.

 

Another reason to eliminate the heel shifter, I guess.
I remove it from day 1 so never had this problem.

 

It's not a heal shifter problem. The shift linkages should be checked for tightness at every service and I use blue lock tite on the fastener threads. Learned this the hard way myself.

 

Maybe you also shouldn't "stomp" on the heel shifter.

 

Words to live by

 

my linkage came apart at 0300 hrs on my way to work. luckily, i could pull over at a stop sign to work on it. my flash light had unknowingly come on and the battery was dead. one of our county's LEO's happened to be to be stopped at the light and saw my perdiciment and came over to help. he held his flashlight while i put the linkage back together as the alan screw had backed out. easy fix thanks to the assistance of one of Calvert County Maryland's Finest. i check it every couple of thousand miles now. losing it once is reminder enough. Thanks again Deputy.