Some back story first...

About a month ago I went with a buddy to check-out a 2005 Road King Custom that he saw on The Craigslist. The bike was in REALLY good shape, and the asking price was surprisingly reasonable (not crazy cheap, but below what similar stuff was going for). Anyway, we make the drive, bike starts/runs/and SEEMS to shift well...but due to weather/road conditions here in the Mid-West we couldn't test ride.
The guy seemed to know ZERO about bikes, and was REALLY motivated to sell it...so (in person) lowered the price and said he would throw-in some extras like a bike jack, cover, and a leather riding jacket. So, my advice was to buy the bike, and told my buddy that if we did find any issues I was confident I could 'make them right' without too much effort...as I have a lot of parts laying around from working on the touring bikes that me & my Pops have.

Anyway, continued unpleasant weather has kept him from really getting any riding time in, but he was able to ride it home...to a local shop (for state inspection)...and over to my place so I could do a bar swap for him. When he brought it over, he complained that there was some troubles shifting - that it was getting 'stuck' in higher gears. I told him I would check it out.

So. I got the bar swap done (16" apes) and take the bike up the street to test it out...YEP...it does not want to shift AT ALL. 1st-to-2nd is fine, but once I hit 3rd...all bets were off. It didn't want to go into 4th or drop back into lower gears. I got it back into the garage and started investigating to find that there was some serious tension/binding of the shift linkage. Pulling the linkage apart I quickly found that the transmission side lever seemed right...which was what I expected, but was still a relief (those of you that are the person who is asked for 'bike advice' from friends should know what I mean - last thing you want is to make a recommendation and then be wrong).

All of the binding was in the front shifter pivot (were it goes through the inner primary). I hit it with a BUNCH of PB Blast, but even after working it for a while to get it to penetrate...it still took a rubber hammer to get the pivot out. Once the pivot was out, it was TOTALLY covered with oxidation...I hit it with more PB Blast, some steel wool, and some 220-grit sandpaper...then put it all back together with a nice coat of bearing grease. Now it shifts perfect.

My assumption is the seller thought the transmission was F'd-up and wanted to get rid of the bike bike over the winter while no one could really do a proper test ride.

Simple fix that prolly cost the seller about $2-grand, and got my buddy a REALLY good deal.

 

thats awesome! i love to hear stories of people getting good deals. Just goes to show you what a little elbow grease and pb blaster, time, and a little knowledge can go along ways. and 2K$ goes a long way in my book!

NICE!

 

With that story in mind, I would be very concerned about where and when that bike was ridden in the past, and the general lack of maintenance, care, and concern given it. But you'll have plenty of time to go over it in the month or two before riding season starts...there's probably other problems involved as well.

PB Blaster has a great reputation, I use Kroil, which is harder to get than PBB, but hey, it works! A whole lot better than what a lotta guys use, WD40...

Great story, glad it worked out well!

 

Years ago there was a grease zerk form the factory for that shift pivot. Some folks put them in themselves now.

 

 

I have seen that issue misdiagnosed myself more than once.

 

I did a better check of the bike over the last week while I had it here doing the bars...it is in really good shape. I wouldn't hesitate to take it on a long trip.

At the time we went and looked at the bike, without going so far as to pull rocker covers and such, I was pretty confident that any issues would be minor. Turns out I was right. The only other issue I found was with the rear brake line...whomever installed the braided cables ran the clutch cable in a way that it was almost wrapped around the brake line (hard to explain just how it was ran, but it was wrong), causing it to rub through....I think the line was damaged, but still holding pressure, until I started removing the clutch cable and that movement was the last it (the brake line) could take. All thongs considered, I think it was better that the brake line failed while it was in the garage - rather than on a ride.

 

Yep. Seems crazy that they don't do that anymore.

When we did the custom pivot point on my BDL Primary, we put a zerk fitting in...

 

Could of been costly but you squeaked thru if it was me I'd be yanking the tranny

 

I have thought about drill, tap and add a zerk up there. But really once every couple years take apart ,inspect and lube is not too big a deal.