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Neutral Light flickering - fix

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Old 05-26-2008, 01:58 PM
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CKinAZ
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Default Neutral Light flickering - fix

I ran into a problem last week with my Neutral light. It would flicker as I rode down the road, regardless of the gear. If I was in neutral, it would display N properly. At speed, it would flicker errantly.

Being the "rather fix it myself than take it in" kinda guy that I am, I read a few threads here on HDF and didn't find anything other than, "it might have gotten wet after a wash" or "have the dealer replace it" suggestions. So, I looked through the manual, pulled the sensor out and to my delight, it was a mechanical contact switch. I cleaned it off and verified that it wasn't stuck, then plugged it back in to see if the light was controlled properly by the switch (it was).

What I found out was that the sensor is very sensitive to the depth it is screwed into the transmission case. If it's installed just a tad too shallow, the vibration from the gears can make the light flicker. It must have been right on the edge of indicating neutral when originally installed, and after some wear in time, the metal to metal contact wore down the switch and whatever it is resting on inside the case to a point where it wouldn't sense the "in gear" position properly.

In a nutshell, I re-installed it and torqued it down a little more than it was and it is now instaled about 1/4 turn more than before... so the light works right now...

Hope this helps if somebody has the same problem.
 
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Old 05-26-2008, 02:05 PM
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Default RE: Neutral Light flickering - fix

OR it could be that there was a bad batch and a recall issued and you (AND MYSELF) ended up with one of the flaky ones.

I changed mine myself for $5 bucks. But still good to know if this one goes **** up, I'll just loosen or tighten it.[sm=smarty.gif]
 
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Old 05-27-2008, 01:29 PM
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CKinAZ
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Default RE: Neutral Light flickering - fix

ORIGINAL: UltraKla$$ic

OR it could be that there was a bad batch and a recall issued and you (AND MYSELF) ended up with one of the flaky ones.

I changed mine myself for $5 bucks. But still good to know if this one goes **** up, I'll just loosen or tighten it.[sm=smarty.gif]
I'm pretty sure the switch is not bad at all. I'd understand a recall on a defective part, but the switch works fine. It was just installed a tad too shallow.

Is the replacement part number the same? If not, they might have lengthened the switch a small amount to make sure it gets installed deep enough...
 
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