Fellow riders,
I just cracked 5k miles over the weekend on my street glide and had my 5k service performed. As I was riding this weekend I down shifted from 6th to 5th to pass an 18 wheeler and when i punched the throttle 5th gear slipped around 2700-3000 rpm. I thought it was interesting that the gear indicator light went from 5 to 4 and when I released the throttle it went back to 5 without me shifting. The egine was picking up RPMs but the bike wasnt accelerating very much, I repeated this a couple times and it continued to do it. Tried it in other gears and no issues. Any thoughts? I'm going to try and head to the dealer in the morning but want to see if y'all had any thoughts.

 

The 5th counter gear is pressed on the shaft, maybe the press fit wasn't.....up to par.

 

Thanks, Mark. I went to the dealer and had the tech ride it and he was able to get the clutch to slip once for him. I made an appointment for them to take a look at it. first, its a real pisser that it isn't covered under warranty unless something broke. second, i just added an air intake, headers, screamin eagle tuner on top of the slip on exhausts and had it dyno tuned. do you think the stage 1 is what started the clutch to slip? i'm just trying to think how else the clutch plates would wear out in 5600 miles when a very large percentage of riding has been outside of the city, very little stop and go time.

thoughts on the screamin eagle clutch plates? I havent done enough research but the dealer, go figure, was recommending them because they were cheaper than OEM.

 

The plates are probably fine with that kind of riding style and mileage. The problem is that even if they are worn you cannot adjust Harley's hydraulic clutch. You just have to get a new set of clutch plates.

 

First off, a stage 1 is hardly a power upgrade, and definitely not enough to cause a healthy stock clutch to slip. There are guys running in excess of 100 wheel horsepower for tens of thousands of miles with no clutch issues. Generally speaking, HD makes a robust clutch assembly. So your clutch, if ridden properly, itself is the culprit. I'm not warranty specialist, but it seems to me that they're blowing smoke up your *** if they won't do anything about it.

Side note, Mark, shouldn't the hydraulic assembly automatically compensate for worn plates? It's my understanding that as the plates wear, the fluid level in the reservoir will drop, and you just add more in to compensate.

 

To an extent, but the piston can only travel so far, after that you're SOL.

 

LOL fair enough.