Was riding back from Germany into Holland on Saturday and my mates 2005 Road King lost all drive...

We got it recovered to a mates friends workshop (Taco Motors in Amsterdam which I can highly recommend, simply amazing) and the first thing he found was that the clutch basket had detached from its sprocket. Amazingly he had a basket in stock and set about replacing it. Unfortunately on the test ride the drive belt snapped.....the plot thickened!

The guy worked well into the night stripping down the gearbox, as when he took the inner primary off he found some serious play in the counter shaft I think (the one the clutch sits on) - long and short when he pulled the box he found gears everywhere and even a crack in the transmission trap door. He thinks that when the clutch sprocket sheared it then put pressure on the shaft or pulled it which then made everything else s**t its pants.

Most amazing thing was that Zodiac is 20 mins down the road and had all the parts ready to collect Monday morning, in the UK the bike probably would have sat on a ramp waiting forever to get parts. Only thing he had to substitute was the trap door from a Softail but it worked fine. €2300 later and we were on the boat Tuesday (was supposed to be Monday).

We saved a heap getting it sorted there and not back here in the UK, great little workshop!

No idea why the clutch basket and sprocket separated, but I suspect if he had replaced the basket when he found groves in the basket fingers (he flattened them out) he could have avoided this - but those rivets are pretty blooming solid and I'd never have expected them to fail!

 

Maybe he was shifting with wooden shoes & busted it?

 

Jolly well done old chap! A real bummer to suffer such damage, but a remarkable turn-around.