After smoking a primary bearing I went to a manual primary chain adjuster. Very noticeable, improved, difference in shifting. Also used 10w30 oil (and put the gas cap on the seat when refueling) bwahaha. I won`t tolerate the OEM chain adjuster again. The over tightening of the primary chain (with OEM adj.) takes its toll. As an example I once experienced the damage done from a belt drive. A buddy butchered a belt drive on his super glide and it trashed the engine sprocket bearings in 100 miles. It was a fresh rebuilt engine that succumbed to the over tight drive belt. Expensive.

 

nothing to do with the tranny and everything to do with the clutch mechanism. Hold your clutch in at a stop light and and rev up engine before you shift into first. no clunk. or when the bike is cold when first started, pull in clutch, roll the bike backwards, which is breaking the clutch plates free and then shift into first. No clunk. its all about the clutch.

 

real tranny gear oil 75-140 worked wonders for me Ive done it to both softails


run super light weight redline w shock proof or amsoil 20-50 in primary


you will be amazed ..... I hate the clunk as well and have tried multiple variations to make it better .... my 09 softail is better that the 05 fatboy ... but straight cut gears I cant over come completely ..... but its like night and day .... difference


one has royal purple syn 75-140
one has lucas 75-140 syn redline in both primarys

 

Normal. Isnt it?

 

16 RGU love my clunk.

 

The lube has a lot to do with it. I use Formula plus and learned to shift smoothly. About 90 % of my shifts are smooth.

 

My '12 Ultra TriGlide is barely noticeable. My '17 RoadKing, is quite noticeable. Both running BelRay. But, I suspect the '17 clutch drags a bit more. But, the '17 finds neutral 100% of the time like butter.

It's the gear engaged indicator ,

 

A lot of bikes do it. Both my Kawasaki Concours and Yamaha FJR had just as loud (if not louder) clunks. I just read where Honda invested a great deal in the design of the 2018 Goldwing engine to, among other things, get rid of the clunk.

Beary

 

Funny, I have an '08 FLHT that I bought new. Now over 108,000 miles on the clock. It clunks putting it in gear from neutral, but doesn't clunk after that. I did change the clutch to a Barnett extra plate, with stock pressure plate, but even all stock, it worked fine, with no extra noise when shifting. Perhaps your technique for shifting different than mine, I don't know.

 

Ya gotta keep the clunk ... it's a Harley ... they're supposed to do that ... without the clunk it's not a Harley