jam nuts or loctite, different paths for the same result.

 

Check the transmission shift lever where the rear of the shifter rod attaches. Use a flashlight while leaning over the seat to examine the shift lever for movement while pushing and pulling on the shifter rod assembly. I'm betting your shift lever is loose on the transmission shift shaft splines. Had to do this repair on my son's 02 RK since the soft metal teeth on the shift lever had worn down after loosening up and could no longer be tightened on the splines of the tranny shift shaft. By the way, for an 02 RK we had to pull the primary drive and inner case off to allow for R & R of the shift lever. Newer bikes have an indentation on the back of the inner primary so that the lever can be loosened and slid off the tranny shift shaft w/o pulling the primary (not sure what year this was added).
As part of this repair I added H-D heim joints to the orignal shift rod assembly and it's tight now with no foward/aft slop!

 

I just installed my Road King shift linkage with heim joints on mine. Instructions showed the front shift linkage point going behind the shifter lever(offset from back). Mine didn't have clearance. The bolt head would scrape the cooling fins. I put it on the outside, took it for a spin, and it works fine.

 

Yeah check to make sure your slop in the link at the tranny shaft, if so do a search. There's various threads on the subject that might help.

 

I bought one of the kits off ebay and have been happy with it. It gets the job done and the shifts are definitely more positive with the heim joints vs. the original ball and socket shifter ends.

 

OK, so I'm glad I'm not the only one that read the instructions that way - the instructions are *wrong* of course!

 

Wonder who's writing those instructions?