Anyone out there tried a 6 into a 4 speed box from JIMS. I did and man am I sorry for the expense/effort. I bought it in June 2008, my jobe, at times keeps me on the road so didn't do the intall until last winter.Put the old girl, '79 FLH, back on the road in April. At right around 500 miles she blew up, now I'm out of the 1 year warranty but contacted JIMS anyway to see if this was an ongoing "toyota" type problem General run around and offered to let me ship it back to California for a rebuild, on my dime of course. Next it was take it to an "authorized dealer". I removed the trannny and dissassembled it to find major breakage and signs of extreme heat?? I did find the lock nut for the ratchet Pawl backed waay off! Just before the blow up the tranny shifted up still good but down was a nightmare. The "authorized dealer" said it didn't have any oil in it, I know it was full because I filled it, wouldn't quite take a full quart and no signs of leakage at that time. The parts I got back are covered in 80W-90!! So now I pay another 500+ dollars for a rebuild that has no warranty on their work, this is my shocked look, and put the tranny back in. It now shifted as good as it did when first installed, you couln't hardly hear the shift!!! but now leaked like a sieve through the trap door gasket!! This time it went about 175 miles and now all I can get is first and second gear!!!!! My mechanic and myself are ripping it out again and I am working hard to purchase a Baker 6 speed, could have had another bike for this money! Anyway I e-mailed JIMS and have been put on ignore, first the nuts, then the guts, now a spit to the face. I will put this tranny on a shelf for show and tell as I would not feel comfortable selling it to my worst enemy. I will never recomend anthing made by JIMS to family, friends, or complete strangers, I do a lot of travelling and will continue to warn others! Time down, labor, over 3500 dollars in material and rebuild. The thing that really burns me is I hear they are now offering a 6 year 60000 mile warranty! I can't get an answer from them as what else may have caused this, as I said the transmisson was full of oil! I asked if the shift pawl could have allowed side pressure that could build heat several times and got 0 feedback! That is why I will not feed this problem to anyone else, I wouldn't want that done to me!

 

You have a bad mechanic doing halfass work. That your real problem. Plus you don't check your own oil.

 

Did Baker send you here?

 

His first post

 

Yep checked the oil, and the locknut is fine this time. The mechanic is "Authorized" by JIMS so he must be good...... NO? I checked it before the last ride and it showed full, first install, it also puked out all the oil when draining oil and pieces, how often do you check your tranny oil 100-150 miles, remember I had just 500 miles and had the next oil ready for my 500 mile break in, or every start up like the engine oil? She is old so needs close monitering but I thought a new style transmission would maintain her level after the first few hundred miles, and she did. I've had the old girl for over fifteen years and never had this kind of problem before, the four speed didn't leak but it was getting a little peaked, it just needed to be freshend up a bit to clean up the shifting, but I took it as an excuse to upgrade. I will see what a Baker does and if it has no problems , maybe my luck changed. ;o)

 

Nope Baker hasn't been in contact.

 

New work check for leaks or oil spots.

 

I like Red Line oil in my trans so if I see red spots it's from my trans.

 

You can usually tell if it is tranny oil by the smell, gear oil and motor oil have different smells to them. Oil weeps and drips are pretty much the norm on a Shovel. My Evo' sportster doesn't mark much. My old Triumphs left you smelling like oil and gas on a short or long run, but handled the twisties like a dream! Both the '71 Tiger and the '75 Bonneville were a blast to attack corners.

 

I have been running a Jims 6-speed for around 32,000 miles now and have waited for it to blow-up at any moment....but it keeps on running. BUT (the but always jumps up), I have a terribly noisy 6th. gear, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are quite as a church mouse, or at least by HD tranny standards they are.

I called Jims the day after it was installed to complain about the noise and was told by Jims to run 75W140 synthetic and I do admit that it reduced the noise to some degree. That was years ago. Well, I recently installed some Sta-Bo swing arm bushings in an effort to get better corner handling (tossed the old cleave-blocks) and man.....she really does corner and handle better now, BUT (there is the but again), my 6th. gear noise has doubled. It sounds like it really is going to jump out of the case.

I am thinking that when I tightened-up the swing arm, the noise is more prevalent because it has less rubber to absorb it.

What fluids do you guys run and is your 6th. gear real...real noisy? I have not done a thing to it other than install the Sta-Bo bushings and the stabilizers inside the read motor mounts.