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What's up guys, question for all of you. Just picked up my first harley last weekend, its an '86 fxr with a new barnett clutch and basket in it. Occasionally while up shifting or down shifting the bike will get stuck in between gears and behave like it's in neutral. The clutch feels like its adjusted properly, grabs good, and never gives me any other issues besides this one. The shift linkage is a little sloppy but not terrible. Should I play with the linkage or do you guys think it's something internal? Any insight helps as I'm new to these bikes, appreciate it.
Fix the slop in linkage, make sure the shift arm is tight on shift shaft on transmission, do a clutch adjustment by the service manual, and a shift paw adjustment maybe necessary
Sounds like the slop is putting you in neutral, which is usually only accessible between 1st and 2nd.
Being able to find neutral is every Harley riders dream.
Fix the slop in linkage, make sure the shift arm is tight on shift shaft on transmission, do a clutch adjustment by the service manual, and a shift paw adjustment maybe necessary
Grab the shift lever off the trans shaft, and see how much you can move it front to back. Best guess, it's time to take a long allen wrench on socket to tight up the shifter lever bolt, to get the lever back tight to the shaft.
If bolt is maxed out tight/no longer have any gap, and still a lot of play of lever to shaft itself, time to replace the lever with a better one.
Next, pull the trans cover (may need a new cover gasket if the old one rips/cracks), and check the pawl indexing to drum rods. To add here, with shift lever in one hand, and other hand to hold the pawl assembly, this allows you to double check if the shifter lever is really tight to the shaft or still loose on it isntead.
Also to note,with cover off the trans, you can take a look at the drum slots, the shifter dog legs and there rods for the drum slots, and even gear edges to see if they have major peening/sheering going on, and time to dive into the trans from someone shifting the bike without using the clutch.
As for shifts on the Harley once you do have the linkage tightened back up and pawl adjusted correctly, need to be firm with shift stabs, but not slam stomping at the shifter pegs,since it can cause the shifter drum to over rotate past the next gear detent position.
Regarding getting the trans into neutral, get to do that from first gear, and the trick, put just a touch of tension on the shifter with the clutch lever pulled all the way in, give the throttle a quick light blip (1500rpm), and as the engine comes back down in RPM's from the light blip, the light pressure on the shifter will be just enough for when the clutch releases better, for a effortless shift to neutral.
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Stuck in between gears
exactly.......
