I made a thread a while ago about transmission problems I have had on my 2001 XLH1200C sportster since I owned it.

Tried replacing clutch, didn't work, finally caved in after months of trying to get the time to rip out the transmission and put it into a repair shop.

He took the transmission out and could not find any issues, in fact he said it was in top condition, so as a precaution he changed the one of the shifter forks, first gear and selector drum.

Guess what......still doing it.

Basically the problem is that in first and more so when its cold, as your pulling away on the bike it shifts forward and make a bang noise from the primary area and jerks forward slightly, its not bad, but can be annoying.

 

Which 1st gear did he replace? I'd also question why a trans. in pristine shape needed a shift fork and drum?? The drum especially usually shows so little wear they're good for practically forever.

It sounds like the worn shift dogs like I thought from the get go. The issue lies on the C/S 1st gear and C/S 3rd gear. The dogs and slots get worn down and it doesn't engage fully. Then it can jump out of gear and back in. Below is a pic of a badly worn gear. Those edges should normally be sharp and clean from the machining. Both gears in the set need changed.

 

He said to me that he took the whole tansmission apart and just couldn't find anything wrong with it all, hes not a stranger to working on Harleys or Buell's which is why I trusted him to take a look rather than Harley dealer.

He asked me first if I wanted him to do the changing of stuff, I said yeah lets try an eliminate it.

Just spoke to the repair guy again, he said everything looked in really good shape.

 

Sounds like worn gear dogs to me, too.

Be sure to give it a solid effort when shifting. No *****-footing with the shifter, hit that sucker into gear.

John

 

The thing is when I speak to the guy who worked on it hes more than happy to take it apart as many times as I want him to, but he assures me I am wasting money, as he checked the whole lot, he stripped the whole transmission and just could not find anything wrong with it, he said the wear on it is far better than he would expect to find on a bike with extremely high mileage.

On a side not I know of two people with Sportsters 00-03 who had have exactly the same thing, and the Harley dealer has said that they have had the same thing and the owners ended up replacing the whole transmission in the end.

 

Having the clutch plates stick together when cold will cause a similar problem. The shift into first gear when the bike is cold usually causes a clunk, sometimes even a lurch. This is normal.(Try to move the bike cold with just pulling the clutch lever) Change your brand primary oil perhaps, I suggest Mobil 1 75W90 gear oil. It usually goes away pretty quick, or almost immediately.

Did you soak the clutch plates before install? Checked the throwout bearing and all adjustments?

John

 

Still didn't say which first gear he replaced. If he did the wrong one it won't have changed a thing.

For first gear issues, it's the two gears I mentioned above. You could replace all other 8 gears and still have the issue if you don't touch the problem ones.

I have some that slipped on my ironhead along with new ones I could take pics of to show you the difference. It's not always as clear as the picture I posted.

 

I looked on the bill, it says he replaced gear shaft, fork shift, nothing about gear replacement, he reckons the gear looked very slightly worn, but almost like new, I suspect the first gears may not be as good as he thought the were.

 

That would make me question it. It doesn't take much wear on those dogs to start them jumping. I'll get pics of the ones I have to show you. Sometimes it's almost negligible and the only reason you know to replace them is how they act when riding.

Also explains why full trans replacement fixes it. Could get away with two gears instead, though.