As a result....You wind up with half assed dealership service and repairs.





I would have gotten the battery charged and gone on into town and bought the parts and fixed it.




And yet.....You keep buying them and having the hacks at the dealership do half assed repairs on them and whining about it.


If they're so bad and you're so unhappy....Go buy something else!

 

Dealerships typically earn less on a warranty ticket than the same job on a customer-pay ticket

 

So...you are saying the shifter "linkage" is fine...its the splined lever at the trans that the linkage attaches to that backed out? Yeah...not normally part of a rider inspection...you cant really see that.

 

Dan,
Actually the fix is quite simple and provided you have them it will only take a few minutes to perform. Here are the tools needed A ball Allen socket, a U joint socket extension, a 6" extension, a socket wrench, and a 3/8" wrench (optional a pair of locking pliers).
Steps:
1. Remove the shift lever from the Linkage shaft (using the 3/8" wrench) so that you do not break the little ball joint.
2. Gripping the shifter lever with the locking pliers, remove the securing bolt using the Allen socket.
3. Slide the shifter lever onto the splined shifter shaft (if you look down from above your coil pack you can see it) fully.
4. With the bolt attached to you ball Allen Socket (which is attached to your U-joint socket extension and 6" extension) put a drop of thread locker on the threads and install onto the shifter lever and tighten.
5. Reconnect the Linkage shaft to the shifter lever.


Personally I like the aftermarket Linkage set up much better as it is a superior design.


Regarding maintenance checking all the hardware on the bike I seriously doubt anyone checks ALL the bolts especially this one, and in Dan's case the bike didn't even have 1000 miles on it so he hadn't even gotten to the first recommended service. Greezy, are you always this grouchy?
Yep, I missed that one as it never occurred to me to check that end of the shifter linkage even when I did my clutch service (you really need to look at just the right angle to be able to see that the shifter arm is all the way on the shaft or not). Also it was not picked up on my the Indy who changed my primary gear either. One of those assume it was installed correctly items and as far as if one would go to check it, they would likely simply check it with the tools for tightness and move along. In my case it obviously was tight, it lasted for two years before falling off. LOL! Needless to say I will be looking a lot closer and not assume correct assembly from here out.
Bob

 

I check all of that stuff, always have. It's even more important to inspect a new bike because stuff like that does get overlooked. (as we can all see from these posts)



Usually....
But seriously, it amazes me that guys think that because a bike is new, it won't have any issues.
I your case, after 2 years of riding the bike to expect a lever on a splined shaft that is held tight by a pinch bolt to not possibly work loose is just unrealistic.
To blame the factory for shoddy maintenance practices is stupid.






How'd that work out for you?



Time to go out and find a competent indy.





It was most likely installed correctly and it just got sloppy over time...It happens.



I used to have customers at my shop that would bring me brand new bikes, to have me go over them and inspect them for half assed get ready's...I would find something wrong on every single bike that I inspected.


Imagine that!


Humans put these things together and humans inspect them, there are bound to be things that they miss, this is even more prevalent in an environment like a dealership where the training is marginal (at best) and the mechanics are more interested in going to lunch than in getting the work right the first time.


I have very high standards, 'cause my customers life might just depend on the quality of my work.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

Sucks you had to figure it out this way.

I experienced a NASTY head shake a couple weeks ago.

Turns out, HD doesn't do quite the QC you'd expect on these bikes.

My fall away (steering stem) was WAY loose.

Kinda pisses me off.

Is it possible to post a pic of exactly what you're talking about? Maybe post a link of a parts diagram and reference the part # in the pic?

I understand what you're referencing but not exactly what you're describing.

Ill be VERY attentive checking the bolts/ linkages.

 

Points well taken.
Actually this Indy is very good, however in this particular case there would never have been a reason for them to look at the shifter since never any complaints and no where near the area they worked on since they were on the other side of the case when installing the new pulley.
I have built Hot Rods and built and raced motorcycles for over 45 years (hobbies) and missed it so figures. This is why I wasn't too critical about the dealer PDI missing it. **** happens. One would assume the assembly of something this simple would have been done correctly. As they say ASSUME makes an *** out of You and Me so lesson learned which was the purpose of this Thread to begin with. Your comments helped to keep everyone on their toes and look at everything no mater how basic.




Fall away is being loose is fairly common and yep I checked mine the first day when I got home as well as alignment (lessons learned over the years).
Sad thing for you is if you have more than a few hundred miles on your bike your tires likely already are scalloped from the Fall Away being too loose. This means that the wobble (head shake) will return and get progressively worse as the tires wear. It will begin as an annoyance and then begin to affect the handling.


Now regarding where this is since mine is fixed already let me explain rather than have you go back and re-read the entire thread. on the Left side of your bike, Look at your shifter Linkage shaft. Trace back where in connects to the Shifter lever. Looking down from above the coil pack you will see where the Shifter Lever connects to the Transmission. There should be virtually no gap between the backside of the lever and the inside of the Transmission case. If you see a gap of approximately 1/4" then you need to go back and re-read the complete Thread on how to fix it.
As I already stated the OEM Shift Linkage is a real POS In my opinion and I would upgrade it to one with Heim Joints.
Not quite sure why my Wife's Idiot husband hadn't already done that upgrade long before. After all I replaced and upgraded the brake lever shaft on day one with better hardware. Just lazy and too focused on other things I guess, LOL!
Bob

 

Great now that I finally bought a HD I read this kinda stuff!. I will check over ALOT of bolts since I have 600+mi on it

 

know 1 thing for sure after reading this thread, am going to check mine.

 

Then my work here is done!
That was the intention of the Thread. If the factory missed something as simple as this which I seriously don't expect any PDI to pick up everything, I am sure there are other things just as obscure that either were over looked or not done 100%.
You don't want me to list all the things Audi missed or didn't do correctly on my buddy's A8 and that is like a $100K car! He saved every penny to buy something in this class and has been major bummed that it wasn't dialed to the 9's dead to the rights ***** to the wall perfect. The first visit had the car tied up for 9 days just doing all the crap he found wrong in the first 30 days of owning it.
Bob