Scootin' yesterday, been out for about 10 minutes...shifting was fine...pulling up to red light to stop, tried to down-shift, & nothing....clutch working fine....found where the forward shifter normally sits parallel with pavement....now it's at about a 30 degree angle going down.

On the way back home, it would shift up, into either 4th or 5th gear, but would never shift down.

Looked at the linkage & all, nothing seems out of place. I've replaced the worn splines before, but this appears different. Just afraid that it's something in the tranny. I've never gone inside one, & probably wouldn't know where to start if I did.

Thanks in advance for your ideas. (This is my baby, I never wanted another, but if she's going to keep giving me problems, I might go for a 2010 King, dressed pretty much the way mine is now!)

12Ga.

 

Check out my thread a few posts down from yours. Had a very similar situation. Ultimately, the splined shift shaft snapped. Before it broke, was getting progressively more difficult to down shift, but never a problem upshifting, as the shaft was obviously (in hindsight) starting to fatigue/crack/flex open on downshifting, and the crack was flexed closed on upshifting.

 

Ok, quit whining, the bike is 13 years old, things will wear out... ...

Check the shift lever on the transmission, the lever may be loose on the shifter shaft...

If it is loose, you may feel free to start whining...

If the shift lever on the transmission is loose, you could install a new bolt and tighten it, you may have to really crank on it.

Some guys have had success using a longer bolt with a nut on the other end. You have nothing to lose trying , because if you can`t get it tight, you will have to remove the inner primary cover to get the lever off the shaft. If the splines on the shaft are bad, you will have to disassemble the transmission to replace the shaft.

 

Haha LOL, that's too funny. Yeah it's gettin up there, 'cept the tranny has an Ultima 6 sp OD gear set in the stock cases, only a couple years old/40 thousand miles on the part before it snapped.

What's even funnier is I still have until June 2014 before my extended warranty plan expires...

 

Thanx, I'm going to look closely tomorrow...it snowed today & just too dadburn cold in the gai-rage...EyeSpy, I think Dan was telling me to quit whining....& I do understand...bought it off a rub in 2001....mostly garage kept...my former son-in-law (IronOrder-GA) was my wrencher. Now he's gone & I've had to find a new one....he put in my new clutch about 8 months ago. It's been running/shifting fine.....We'll see tomorrow.

If not, looking at the HOG/HD site, I think I can build a new one for a very reasonable price, as long as I get a fair trade-in value for the 97.

12G

 

Oops, nother one of them damn senior moments! Sucks about loosin your wrench. Good luck!