"Kind of maintenance" ? ... how 'bout simple periodic checks of tightness

i.e. make sure it's always tight

.

 

only reason I ask, mine will betaken apart soon and I will have the above at my disposal

 

Actually all it needs it to be kept tight in the shaft. The first 10000 miles is most critical but they can come loose after that. The arms have cast splines which do not fit perfectly on the shaft splines. After time they bed in and become loose. Last 2 HDs I bought used had loose shift arms. One had 10K on it and the other 15K.

 

What I've witnessed, over the years is that someone won't remove the screw totally, before they try to remove the shifter. This, causes "galling" to the splines on the shaft. This is the beginning of a "wobbly" shifter (as described by the OP.)

 

I knocked the shifter off my ironhead and never found it. got home by clamping vise grips on, now it has a set screw