So im driving down the interstate after having stopped for gas about 30 miles from home. Because of the heat im hitting major bumps that are bottoming out my suspension every 2 miles or so. I take the closest exit for my town just to get off the interstate when I notice i cant down shift. Ok im stuck in 5th and am able to limp the bike to a gas station where i get it into second gear and limp it home. The bad news is I had just replaced the stock shift levers with the fancy billet levers. I guess it could have been worse the next exit up I never would have made it in 5th gear. My guess is the inner bolt broke off. just wanted to complain about it.

 

Changed my pegs as well before going on 1st long roadtrip, Read on here of others having the same problem & tightened the shifters before leaving, Still lost the heel shifter. Could'nt be a design flaw? LOL

 

Had that happen a couple of time over the years.
A Vice grip and alittle duct tape make a good temp replacement.

 

Bolt broke? or maybe forgot to tighten bolts! You only need one anyway, unless you like the heel shift.

 

It has happened to me...Serious vibration down there. Check for tightness and or/use red locktite.

Contrary to what people may think it is NOT that hard to break the seal of red locktite if needed.

 

Part of the problem is the design. I dropped 2 heel shift levers in one day, the original and then a replacement installed at a HD dealer. That one dropped within 60 miles. The 3rd one that day I watched the guy apply red loctite and torque to spec, a short ways down the road and it was jumping all over and sliding off the shaft. Pulled over and tightened it till I bent the allen wrench, its stayed put ever since.

Now the design problem. The heel lever is on the outside and the idiot engineer designed it with the bolt put in from the bottom. So when the bolt loosens and falls out the lever is soon to follow. On my '96 FLSTC the heel lever has the bolt put in from the top so even if it does loosen the bolt has a better chance of staying in and keeping the lever in place. Don't know why they changed it, even if the toe and heel levers were swapped the bolt head will still be down and there is not enough clearance to put the heel lever on the inside. I'm pretty sure the levers have the same part #.

 

Had it happen to me a couple of times too. It never fell all the way off, but it had about 3/8 of an inch play back and forth. Took it to the dealer and he re-tightened it. It happened again a couple of days later. Come to find out, the bolt hole was never tapped far enough so the bolt wasn't going in all the way. Took care of that and it hasn't happened again in almost a year.

 

I lost the post also im guessing it was the inside bolt where it connects to the shift rod.

 

I put the billett shifters on both my harleys and have never had an issue, my 03 fat boy with 13k miles, my sg with 8k miles....however I have the stock one in my saddle bag since so many people have had this issue including one of my buddies coming back from north carolina to florida..