Does the lever spring back to the centered position, or does it flop to either side (front,rear).

As long as the lever springs back to center, and your shifter pawl adjustment is correct, you are ok.

 

Yeah..its springs back to center..but there is so much front to back freeeplay/flop in the shift mechanism as a whole, so much so that it rattles when riding..

Fig.1 says the motion must be equal forward and back.. But how much motion? and is there such a thing as too much motion? I just don't remember this being that sloppy last year..

 

Mine was very sloppy as well. I did three things that made it like new again.

1. I loosened the tranny arm clamp bolt and pushed the tranny arm snug against the tranny case then retightened the clamp bolt.

2. I loosened the clamp bolts on the toe and heel shifters and pushed them snug against the pivot at the front of the primary case and tightened them back up.

3. I installed a shift linkage rod with heim joints at each end.

I know you said your problem is too much front to back play, but just making sure that everything is snugged up right might make it seem to go away. I know mine was all kinds of sloppy in all directions and unless I kept my heel against the shifter, it would rattle like a bell constantly and drove me nuts. Now it looks and acts like it should, more precise shifting, better feel and no more rattle!

 

my shifter is loose on the shaft and i cant seem to pull it out because it hits the back of the primary cover.tightened the allen bolt but it is still floppy. would like to install new shifter. does that mean either pull the inner primary,or move the tranny?

 

Here's one solution

http://betterlever.com/

http://betterlever.com/how_to.php

 

Not to be the bearer of gloom and doom but,could be the shift pawl spring has become weak. Unfortionatly to change it is a big job. My softail was loose like you describe and was that way for a long time until it finally broke. The design is such that if it breaks while the bike is running down the road, its a fifty - fifty chance that it'll take out some gears. I lucked on the pro side and it made it thru the meat grinder without doing harm to anything and it amazes me as to how.

 

The people that sell a 190 dollar shift lever want everyone to think that removing an inner primary is brain surgery. Another issue is that if the splines are shot on the shaft, you must remove the inner primary cover anyway...

To remove the inner primary cover you will only need one special tool, a primary locking bar, which is simply a piece of flat narrow steel, you can make one or buy one, georgesgarage.com has them and they ship very fast.

You can do this job in a couple of hours, just take your time, read the service manual and bag and identify all your hardware as you go.

Once you do this job, you will not be at the mercy of a shop (and a shops schedule) in case you have to go in there again, for a job such as a leaky transmission seal, belt change etc...

But before you do all this , first remove the bolt from the lever and get a high strength bolt from a hardware store, don`t mess with stainless or any bolt of unknown quality, make sure it is high strength grade 5 or 8.

Install the high strength bolt and get it tight, crank it good, you have nothing to lose...

Some guys have even installed a nut on a longer bolt. And some have got in there with a small grinder and cut the space where the lever end pinches the shaft, to allow the lever to pinch the shaft harder.