5 th gear change to Helical 5 th gear
 

Has anybody change out their 5 th gear straight cut 07-08-09 to the new ( 2010 - 2011 ) 5 th gear helical cut gear, just the gear not the transmission. I know Harley says it's Not Retrofitable and your vehicle speed will be slower then indicated by speedometer, which that doesn't bother me and The 6 th gear light may not function correctly ( I don't know why they say may not ) but the 6 th gear light would be nice to have. Any Info would be very helpful. Thanks.: Mac

Do you have one with a whine? Some bikes have reported it being really bad and alot just complained about the whine so I guess thats why HD went to the helical cut 5th gear but I've never heard a bad one. I've got an 09 with the straight cut and it did have a slight whine but was ever so slight, however after 20,000km I dont here it anymore. Perhaps I'm a lucky one or the shockproof heavy helped, I dont know. If your speedo is out it can be re-calibrated by your HD dealer. Sorry if thats of little help.

Interesting As I have a 09 TriGlide when first new whine was loud. After a few thousand miles. And changed out the trany fluid with Harley Formula Plus trans Fluid. Which it calls for. Did this twice in 3k miles the whine is not as loud. I prefer the whine as I know im in 5th gear. I also have a 10 FLXXX Street Glide Trike with the improved 5th gear, No Whine. If I had a choice Id have the old 5th gear in my 10XXX also. My ? is can I put the old style 5th gear in my 10 street glide. I also read here on the forums that the old style 5th gear is stronger. Then the new style 2010-11 5th gear.

Redline with Shockproof in the tranny reduced my 5th gear whine very noticeably. I can barely hear it now.

I am not expect by any means. But I thought that the 5 gear straight cut

is stronger then the helical-cut gear. Like others have said, some folks

complained about it, and they changed the or should I say they improved

the 5th gear.

I wish everyone would complain about the low profile shocks, so that the

MOCO would do a better job about fixing these too!


Ride Safe!

YELLOWBIRD

Bingo! Except that I don't believe they improved it, they technically made it weaker IMO. Leave it alone with straight cut. 1st and 5th are straight cut for a reason. I don't notice anything different with mine with Redline in it. If the OP changes gearing and loses 6th gear light or has speedo off, can get it back with something like TTS or the Dakota Digital calibration unit.

Yeah, the helical cut gears are no improvement. Theoretically they are weaker than a straight cut gear, although I doubt you'll ever see them fail. Bearings and seals will be a different story. Helical gears produce lateral stress. They want to push the gears shafts sideways and that stresses bearings and seals. Straight cut gears just turn without that lateral stress and wasted energy. A little gear whine sounds good to me.

When I started riding guys who rode Harleys mostly drove pickup trucks with whiney four speeds down to the beer joint to shoot some pool when it was too cold or wet to ride. Nowadays we have all these Lexus jockies bitching about the whine while heading to Starbucks.

My Harvester PU does not whine! People think it is a siren!

+1. My 5th gear's sound isn't obtrusive and it serves as a reminder that I can shift into 6th.

I purchased the Baker F6F kit for my 2007 Road King Classic. I had a very loud whine in 5th gear. I tried the Redline Shockproof heavy gear oil. That quoted it down a little bit. I then installed the Vance and Hines Pro Pipe chrome. That quieted it down a little more ! But it was still very noticeable, maybe I am sensitive to it but I didn't like it.

The Baker kit comes with a recalibration kit to recalibrate the speedo. You also need to buy the special tool to press on the new gears. Baker will sell you the kit for 500 bucks instead of the advertised 899.00 if you call them directly and tell them about how you saw it on the website on sale during Christmas of 2010.

I will post later on how it works when I get it back from the mechanic. I know how some have said the helical gears are weaker and they probably are but I doubt they will cause a problem unless you have a monster big bore engine with tons of torque. Baker makes quality stuff and this is their area of expertise, I don't think they would put out a kit that is going to fail in most normal installations.