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The splines on the inside end of the shifter shaft ( opposite the foot shifters ) were close to stripping. Thought it worth posting, maybe save somebody some grief by checking yours. I replaced the shaft and lever $75, glad to catch it because if that stripped you are pretty much stranded. Checking the bolt for tightness only takes a minute. Ride on
Good reminder. And here's a tip I learned from watching the tech at McDermott's Harley-Davidson in Fort Ann, NY. (They got me in & out in an hour which saved my vacation.) :
Remove the inner shaft bolt first, then grab the two outboard ends of the levers to pull the shaft out.
Good point about putting it in 2nd that would get you somewhere. Not sure about flipping the shaft, if the inner splines were stripped and you flipped it there would not be splines for the shifter
Happened to me several years ago, during heavy rush hour traffic, of course. I was able to ride to a parking lot and called the nearest Harley Dealer. They sent out their trailer for me and fixed the bike the next day. Cost about $120 parts and labor, didn't charge me for the tow to the shop.
Now I inspect that stuff quite often. Sucked not being able to shift while in heavy stop and go traffic.
I actually had this happen to me about 10 months ago. I was rounding a tight cloverleaf from one interstate to another and came out of it about 35 mph. I tried to upshift to blend into the higher speed traffic and nothing happened. I pulled off to the shoulder, just to get out of traffic and see what happened. My riding buddy noticed me pull off and pulled over about a quarter mile ahead of me. I managed to feather the clutch into third and catch up with him and he knew right off the top of his head what had happened. We went on to our meeting and another attendee was a retired veteran with a trailer and a ton of time on his hands. He went home and got his trailer, and took me back to the local Harley dealership. They had the inner shift lever in stock, but not the shaft. I bought the lever and went back to his house and changed it out in his driveway. Between cleaning it really good and the new splines on the new lever, I was able to ride it home gently (about 1:45 hours) and ordered a new shaft on Amazon. I think I spent less than $100 for both parts. It's an easy fix, but you're stuck in one gear for the whole ride, until you can replace the parts.
Last edited by BelchFire; Sep 25, 2020 at 02:36 PM.
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Shifter felt funny
