My bike's an '05 FXD, 72K miles...

Leaving home on 12/31, the bike stopped shifting down, ended up revving it back in 3rd gear back to my garage. Today I took primary apart, adjusted clutch cable...still nothing. Bike will roll freely when clutch is engaged, but won't shift down. What should I check next?

 

I had that trouble once (mine was stuck in 2nd) with an older bike and it was a gear shifter fork up inside the gear box. Because it requires precise measurement and fitting the work was beyond me and I had to take it to a shop.

So my guess would be something with the gear shifter assembly, maybe someone else can help more,

http://partsfinder.onlinemicrofiche....TER%20ASSEMBLY

 

Have you tried the arm on the transmission while it's down to shift? Will it go into 4th?
I bought a FLSTN that was really hard to downshift 3 - 2 - 1. I adjusted the clutch, adjusted the primary chain tension and the Shift Pawl.
Filled to the proper level and after that it was one of the smoothest shifting Harley's I've ever had.

 

Just watched this vid, and I realize that I do have A LOT of free play in the shifter levers, maybe they're stripped and I luckily I won't have to play around with the transmission.


Levers are #30 and #39



The levers are parts #30 and #39 in the diagram

 

That's where I would start is with the linkage.

 

what I was getting at earlier. Shift arm at transmission - if it works there and you know your linkage/bushing are sloppy = question answered. If not then move to step #2, but not before you satisfy step #1.

 

UPDATE!

I disassembled the primary to get to the shifter arm, and it had a lot of freeplay, which I eliminated it by tightening the hell outta that bolt (1/4 allen head if you're interested) and after having done that the shifter cam moves up and down three spots (as you can see and hear on the video) I'm thinking of putting the bike back together, top it off with oil and see if that fixed the downshifting problem...wish me luck!

 

Make sure shifter fork alignment is correct before putting it back together.

 

Hi Spanner! Now that I have the trans cover off I can see the forks...how do I make sure they're aligned and working properly?

 

Part #42 is what you align, there is an adjustment just above the sprocket, read the manual to get it correct but basically with one of the shifter dowels in the 12 o'clock position the fork part must have an equal distance either side of that dowel.