First gear slip - help!
 

'02 1200. The bike jumps in 1st gear occasionally as the RPM's go up. Shift drum is new, new detent plate and retainer (because the old one came off, again). Shift forks are good. Chain and adjuster is good. Clutch is good, cable is good. Dogs on gears are worn, but not excessive. Any ideas out there?

When you say "jumps" you mean like a chain jumping on a sproket or a belt jumping on a cog?
And is this only under hard exceleration?

It's almost as if the cluch momentarily releases and then grabs again. It is during acceleration, but not necessarily during hard acceleration. Only happens occasionally during riding but always when leaving for the first time of the day. Neutral to first....pull out of the garage...around 2000rpm it will slip......shift to second, everythings fine. Pulls great through the gears, even first once it gets that first slip out of the way. Sometimes it will do it when leaving a stop sign, especially if I have to feather the clutch a bit.

Check the primary fluid level, also check the clutch adjustment.My '02 would do the same when it was time to replace the fluid.

sounds like a worn clutch... you say your clutch is good... you mean you've inspected it recently or it's new so it ought to still be good?

Like zimbob said, check your primary fluid. It may also be that your primary chain isn't adjusted properly (to specs). There should only be about a 1/2in. play in the primary chain.

Local Harley shop has the bike. Replaced the shift drum, detent plate, and retainer after the retainer came off last week. It was slipping before. They're trying to fix the 1st gear slip now. They've checked the clutch, gears, etc. and everything looks ok. After waiting 3 days on a call back from Harley Tech Service, they are told by H.T.S. that we need to change the spring plate.

I am looking forward to the fix on this.My wifes 02 883 is doing the same thing,maybe a little more often.I was going to just toss a clutch in it but I will wait for the outcome.

Seems to me that the '02's had a few tranny/clutch problems. My '02 had all the shift forks replaced along with a new shift drum and detent plate, all this before I started dogging it.

Well....... That didn't fix it. Now we're playing the waiting game with Harley Technical Service again. Hope they call back in less than a week this time. I'll keep you posted.