Okay, now I'm on the right track. I went out and looked at mine and I see what you mean. I haven't had to pull that out so unfortunately, I'm no help but I am interested to see what the fix is in case I run in to the same problem with my 85.

 

It's worth posting pictures as references to others who walk this way after you ...

Below the input pane, you'll see a bar called 'Manage Attachments', click on that > opens a new tab > Choose attachment > upload > then once it is uploaded, you come back to the editing page > then you have an option to place it in line (best) or add it as an thumbnail.

The other way is to use a little yellow button above that looks like a mountain with a black sun and use it to link to another file hosted somewhere else on the internet.

BTW ... I missed something. Do you have a 4 speed? Is it part number 3 second picture ...

 

That's the bolt he is referring to on the rotary top 4 speed. The bolt doesn't have much clearance between the trans and inner primary.

 

Would a shorter bolt work in that place or does it have to be that long? If a shorter bolt will work, then cut the head off of what's in there now, take the rest of the bolt out, replace with a shorter bolt. Otherwise, I think you'll have to pull the primary.

 

I agree. I don't see any other way to go about it.

 

Thanks boys now you are on to in. The bolt is No 3 and the lever is No 25 in the second set of pics. I thought about a shorter bolt but it would never tighten. Your right Tailbreaker you have to see the thing to believe it, just a shorter bolt in there when they built the bike would have been great. Dun Roamin thanks for the pics and the advice.

 

The last time. Had a rotary trans was on my 77 Shovelhead but I ran an open belt drive and hand shift/suicide clutch so I never realized how hard this thing was to get to until you brought this up and I looked at my 85 Wide Glide

 

Hi, What I did was cut the bolt off with a hacksaw blade. An engineer mate of mine said the strength of a bolt is one and a halt times the diameter of the thread. I bought a new lever with a new bush and a shorter bolt. Bit fiddly but we got it in there with some lock tight. Works well, hope it lasts for years.

 

Glad to hear it worked for you.