Friend of mine that I ride with has had a first gear problem all last summer with his trans jumping out of 1st gear when he pulls off from a stop light or stop sign. The bike has over 50K but not over 60K on the engine and chassis and now he just has been keeping pressure on his shift lever to keep it from jumping out of gear. The rest of the gears work normally with no jumping out of gear except for 1st.

The problem started out as occasional and has gotten worse as time has went on or mileage has increased on the bike. I changed the trans/primary oil for him once and I did find a small piece of metal in the oil that drained. The oil change did not make any improvement in any fashion.

If he does need to work on the trans, does the engine require a complete tear down to access the trans to R and R any necessary parts.

Any thoughts or suggestions.

 

Have you tried taking the derby cover off and making sure the clutch is adjusted properly

 

Yes the crankcase halves have to be split, ...complete teardown.
Is the shift shaft sloppy, excessive side play?

 

I had a similar problem but mine would not shift. Turns out my "spring" on my shifter had broke (inside the primary) all other gears shifted fine... Just 1st and 2nd. I would check that before a tear down

 

Adjust the clutch, just to eliminate that as a possibility, but it sounds like worn gear dogs to me. If that's the case, yes, he will need to split the cases.

 

If the problem is the dogs on the gears,,,and I think it is,,,, what price range would the repair cost. Reason for asking is that he owes 4K on the bike thru the bank. This deal is starting to look like a upside down situation with the bike,,,I dont think a 1200 custom with over 50K has a lot of value. Other option is to not repair the bike and trade it in for new but he will end up paying for 2 bikes. The new one plus the 4K for the old one and what the dealer will allow him for the broken machine.

I have a feeling this will not end well in any direction he takes.


At this point I have not looked at any of the suggestions that have been brought out towards eliminating the cause of the problem. I plan to get with him this weekend and we can look at the bike in my shop. This is a good example where you ride 30K and never change the primary oil in your engine.

I hate to say it but he is completely inept when I comes to stuff like this,,he had no idea that there was oil in the primary that needed to be changed regularly. In SPITE of my insistence to do regular oil maintenance. He does not listen and now he can suffer the consequences.

 

If it requires going in the transmission, it means pulling the engine and splitting the case. A dealer is going to charge thousands.

 

My friend called a independent shop and he got quoted around 3K for the job,,,,He is screwed because he has 5K still on his note towards the bike. He bought the bike with 20K on the clock from a dealer for 6K and has paid 189.00 a month on it for almost 3 years. The dealer required that he purchase a warranty on the bike for a thousand something dollars that lasted 1 year. I think the dealer really nailed him in his pocket with this tranasaction,,,most of his payments have went to interest and very little to the principal in addition he only put down 500 bucks.

We talked this situation over and he thinks the dealer will not check the bike's condition if he rides it in and wants to trade for a newer machine. My opinion is that the dealer would be a fool to not inspect the bike's mechanical condition before making a deal and taking in a trade on something of no value.

The other option he has, is his son n law has a guy who can do the fix at his home,,,this guy has a harley repair background and can do the job much cheaper.

The outcome will be interesting and I may or may not have a riding buddy this summer. (roll eyes)