Must have been an older shop. Most today have at least a Prototrak equipped mill, take a few measurements, punch the numbers in and instant correct size hole no specific tooling needed. Old school would take time with set up and a boring head.

 

Going to play devil's advocate, and either shop is too busy,, lad pissed them off, just trying to play "Harley tax" on the work., or does not have true manual machinist to make short work of such, and why they are pricing themselves out of the work.



Even with manual machine with DRO on it, cracked piece bolted to the table, you have the two through channels that you can use to get them on the same Y axis line to home off one, grab the X/Y off sets center lines for the needed shifter channel and thread channel with the same flip of the wobblier, clamp down the piece to be machined the same way (outside face down on the table since it the flat part), zero DRO to your home off the one channel, move to the X/Y for the threaded channel to pilot and thread for it, move to the Shifter channel to pilot drill then final with boring head for that channel, all in about 15 mins. As for Z axis, since outside of inner cover is downward, it really never comes in to play since you have plenty of room in the primary cavity before you would crash to the bed.


Granted that anything that can produce the needed G code faster will would make it shorter work in a CNC machine, but any shop is still going to charge you min shop time for the work in the first place, and sounds like the original $80 way longer times was based off already.

As for CNC machines, verse just going after the project via manual machine and with DRO , the downside to CNC machines over just the cost of them alone that drives shop costs through the roof, has always been the added time to come up with the G code in the first place on simple channel and tapping work. On a large production runs with a lot of movement details, the design Cad work to get the needed G code to run the machine costs are easy to bury in the over all production run costs, but for simple one offs like this with two through channels, just makes more sense to just go back manual machine with DRO, with a machinist that is old school to make short work of such as well.


As for op, would have a talk with the first guy you did talk to at the shop, since will bank that he has a manual machine with DRO has his house, to make a side project of this at the initial price quoted. If not, then check around with some local riders to see if one on has a mill at the house to make short work of such instead.
As for drill press, would pass on such, since drill bit will not produce a clean enough Bore channel for the shifter, nor may not end up with the 2 channel centers being in the correct locations to start with.
Dykem on a flat plate is easy to come up with the needed layout centers from fixed points on the plate via just a caliper, but no so much when you are dealing with uneven surface planes off of pre-drill channels isntead.

 

Figuring the $200 was mostly shop time, it's about the minimum shops charge around here anymore unless you catch them right and talk a good game.

 

I passed on the second job after what I felt was the "Harley tax" as you suggested. I'm not confident in the workmanship in the DFW area. Very few craftsman. I was spoiled as I grew up in the "machine shop capital of the world" in Milwaukee - and if I still lived there, I could get it done and have confidence it would be done correctly.

After that, I found a 95 HD Dyna inner primary (#60663-95 or #60691-94A) a shop was selling for $245 and talked them down to $200, as that was what others I could see. I saw other inners for the 2000-2006 (#60681-01), but I wasn't sure about the fit.

 

I took a head to machine shop once and got a different Harley Tax. The man did it for free! He said he had an old Shovel and like to keep them on the road!

 

Any tips/suggestions on changing out the ring gear with the clutch shell? Perused a couple videos and one noted changing the bolts holding the clutch diaphragm/plates.

 

For starters, what you have in play does not look to be a 97 oem basket to start with, and almost looks to be after market set up, with the ring gear (aluminum gear ring) bolted in place. If such is the case, then should be able to see who made the basket, see if they do have a replacement gear that you would swap out on it.




But short of that, on the OEM type drum/Basket, the steel ring gear is rivet in place to the actual basket.





So my guess, after market clutch set up to start with, and if you did decide to go back to oem set up, could going to get spendy quick to get all the needed parts to go back to 97 OEM set up.



So photos of the basket/clutch set up, so we can figure out what after market type it is, and if starter ring is bolted in, maybe can get a replacement starter ring to replace the tooth damage one.

 

Pictures of what I purchased and of the current setup.

Based on a receipt, it appears to be a Barnett Clutch Kit and Pressure Plate.

 

Drag specialties sells starter rings for around $100, and since DS cage has the ring bolted in place, should be able to change it out.

 

Isn't possible to just unbolt the ring gear from the clutch basket and flip it over and bolt it back together with red Locktite?