My 2007 Sportster Acts Like It's In Neutral. NEED HELP!!!
 

Yesterday while I was riding with a friend we decided that it would be a good idea to do some burnouts. When I was doing it my back wheel started spinning and then it just stopped. I never heard or felt anything break. It seems to be able to shift through the gears just fine, but it acts as though it is in neutral no matter which gear I put it in. My clutch lever feels normal when I pull it in. It feels like it shifts out of neutral normally and the neutral light goes off. It starts up and runs great, it just seems like it stays in neutral. I can just roll the bike around no matter which gear it's in. My belt and both front and rear drive sprockets look fine. I'm guessing that my clutch is stuck or something, but I really have no idea what is causing this. Please help! Has anyone else experienced this problem? If so please let me know. I've searched all over a few forums but haven't found any leads.

"Burnouts" can have a tendency to burn the clutch out.Sounds like this may have happened to your bike.

Thanks Brion, I'm going to open it up and take a look at the clutch. I hope that's all it is.

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Seriously doubt you could burn up a clutch so bad that in low it would not drag enough to go into low and drag the bike fwd unless the clutch was way out of adjustment and already slipping. Once you get that small area of a tire spinning there really is not a lot of load. However if it were to creep forward and lock up it could put a tremendous shock to the drive train since the rear tire would be acting like a hudge flywheel. I would thinks if it had you would have heard something breaking. Not sure were the weak link is in a Sporty. Hope you didn't find it. Do not think Harley designed it with a shear pin and breaking parts dropping down into spinning gears could be thousands of dollar repairs. Push it fwd with key off not holding in clutch and shifting to low to see if it will fall into gear. If it will, then up into neutral (make sure it is) and start it.

You may want to check out this thread: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...esnt-move.html

Thanks hhkiwi, That was a good thread. I pretty much have the same exact circumstances. I tried adjusting my clutch to no avail. I drained the trans and it was almost bone dry! I pulled the primary off and was hit by the stench of burnt trans fluid. I ran a magnet through the burnt fluid that did drain out and it didn't really have any metal shavings in it so I'm hoping that I caught the dry trans soon enough for it to have caused any major damage. I need to order a clutch spring compressing tool so I can pull the clutch out and go from there. I'm going to get back out in the garage to pull the secondary drive pulley to make sure that's not stripped out. I really appreciate all of the help. Please keep the ideas coming! Thanks.

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I'm sure we all can say we did things that seemed like a good idea at the time and it came back to bite us.

Nubz, Story of my life... Hahaha... At least we can learn something from it.

You should be able to see visually if the secondary pulley/shaft is stripped out or not. No need to actually pull it unless you really want to be thorough.

No metal shavings in the fluid is good, because that means it's not catastrophic. I think the clutch will be your solution. It only takes a few hundredths of an inch to throw those things out of whack, and burnouts (although fun!) aren't what they were designed for.

Well, I purchased an extra plate kit with tool from Energy One last night. I was half asleep when ordering it online and failed to notice that they are located about 30 mins away from me. So now I wait for that big brown truck. Once I get it I will give you all an update.