Recently acquired a 1989 sportster 1200 with around 5k on it and I’ve been having this problem when I try to put it in neutral I have to hold my foot on the shifter and left off of the clutch while holding it in neutral with my foot to get it into neutral. When I finally get it into “neutral” it makes almost a grinding noise and I lose the neutral light but it is technically still in neutral just grinding. Any ideas what this could be?

 

Sounds like 1 of 2 things, likely a combination of both IMO. Shifter pawl sounds like it is out of alignment, and I wouldn't be surprised if the clutch cable tension is way too loose. Really shouldn't be grinding while in neutral, I wouldn't be surprised if the pawl is so out of whack that the closest it can get to neutral isn't fully disengaging. I'm guessing it's easier to get into neutral coming from 2nd and not 1st?


Videos on how to adjust both items, in case you don't have a shop manual.

 

You may have discovered why the previous owner sold it, at that age it could be just worn to the point that it’s hard to work with or there is actually something broken in there.
Having said that I am amazed how many “hard to find neutral” posts come up on here with bikes that have nothing wrong with them, rolling the whole bike forward and back a bit while shifting seems to help some people but to be honest proper riding techniques should avoid ever having to shift into neutral while stationary, you should be anticipating whether you going to want to be in neutral once stopped and selecting neutral as you roll up before you come to a complete stop. A slight change in riding habits can eliminate the problem before it happens.

 

Any idea how I would go about changing out the pawl and or shifter fork?

 

Luckily for you, the transmission can be removed if the shift fork is bad, and the clutch hub, chain, and drive sprocket can also be removed to access shift pawl. Either way, your bike should be repairable.

John

 

5spd vid
89 is 4spd

 

Just pulled the clutch hub and trans out…turns out the cam follower snapped in half