Good thing I was adding a nice set of DK Custom Product's Heim joints to replace the breakage-prone ball and socket joints that come on the stock shifter rod. They went on just fine, and with a little polishing look pretty decent, too, BUT...
When I was putting it back on, I felt the arm that moves the rod was loose. The shaft from the shift pegs isn't exactly a tight fit and moves around a bit, but when held steady the arm was still a bit loose on the shaft.
I tightened the snot out of the pinch bolt, but still loose. I'll get about 1/16' play for and aft, and side to side on it. So apparently the splines or whatever is there is wearing. Looks like the dealer will get to fix it, I might as well get the 10K service done a thousand early. Hopefully it won't fall off on the way there next week, but cancelling our ride for today.
Y'all might want to take a look on your trikes and see if it's like that, too. It'd be pretty inconvenient to not be able to shift all of a sudden.
My heel shifter arm came loose on the splined shaft.
I removed the bolt and the arm and looked it over.
Then put it back together and tightened the Allen head bolt.
It's nice and tight now, but it did almost fall off before I caught it.
One of the 1st things I do is ditch the factory shift rod with rod ends, I've seen them fail and strand people. Last year my dad had the shaft and arm the OP has loose strip the splines on the way back from out west. I managed to hog down on the pinch bolt which got him home. I replaced both the shaft and arm, they were both shot.
I have had a set of Heim joints for many months now just waiting for me to get off my duff and replace the stock ones. After reading this thread I am motivated enough to get it done the first dry day we have.
I have had a set of Heim joints for many months now just waiting for me to get off my duff and replace the stock ones. After reading this thread I am motivated enough to get it done the first dry day we have.
It'll be time well spent. I was on a trip out west in 2008 when one of the bikes failed a shift linkage, the nearest Harley dealer was 150 miles away. As luck would have it, the gas station we were stranded at had a guy who knew a friend that had the parts to fix it.
One of the 1st things I do is ditch the factory shift rod with rod ends, I've seen them fail and strand people. Last year my dad had the shaft and arm the OP has loose strip the splines on the way back from out west. I managed to hog down on the pinch bolt which got him home. I replaced both the shaft and arm, they were both shot.
+1! Had EXACTLY the same thing happen on my '14 about a month ago. We had just gotten back from a week riding the mountains in NC and TN, then I rode in to work the next day. Went to ride home, clicked into first, and the shifter peg arms just flopped like a loose tooth. Very gingerly managed to get home by sort of using the lever and shifter rod like a jockey shift Took it apart and found the splines on both the shift rod and especially the front inner shifter arm were almost completely worn off, and no amount of tightening would allow it to function. Took the parts to the dealer (too far to ride and too far for them to do a courtesy pick-up), and the service manager said, "yes we have seen this before" and handed me the new parts. You can bet I keep an eye on this from here on!
Good thing I was adding a nice set of DK Custom Product's Heim joints to replace the breakage-prone ball and socket joints that come on the stock shifter rod. They went on just fine, and with a little polishing look pretty decent, too, BUT...
When I was putting it back on, I felt the arm that moves the rod was loose. The shaft from the shift pegs isn't exactly a tight fit and moves around a bit, but when held steady the arm was still a bit loose on the shaft.
I tightened the snot out of the pinch bolt, but still loose. I'll get about 1/16' play for and aft, and side to side on it. So apparently the splines or whatever is there is wearing. Looks like the dealer will get to fix it, I might as well get the 10K service done a thousand early. Hopefully it won't fall off on the way there next week, but cancelling our ride for today.
Y'all might want to take a look on your trikes and see if it's like that, too. It'd be pretty inconvenient to not be able to shift all of a sudden.
Oh, here's a couple of pics.
I changed out mine to heim joints this morning, don't know why it took me so long. Looking at your pictures do you not have any locking nuts for those end joints?
There wasn't enough thread on the rod to include them. It would have been too far between ends with them on, so I left them off. When I put the ends on, I used a ton of blue threadlocker on the ~1" of thread that goes into each. The front one is bottomed out and snug, the back is only 1/2 turn from bottoming out. Should be fine; it's not like they can go anywhere even if they do get loose.
06-28-2015, 05:59 PM
Check your shifter mechanism arm
Took it apart and found the splines on both the shift rod and especially the front inner shifter arm were almost completely worn off, and no amount of tightening would allow it to function. Took the parts to the dealer (too far to ride and too far for them to do a courtesy pick-up), and the service manager said, "yes we have seen this before" and handed me the new parts. You can bet I keep an eye on this from here on!