Last year about 3 hours from home the bike gets stuck in 5th gear at 11:00 at night...... I rode it all the way home, smokin the clutch takin off, and windin up the rpms to get it movin. The next day I found the shifter lever stripped out. Yeah the one that bolts onto the tranny behind the primary. I replaced it and put it all toghter.

Today I decided to go around the block and hit 2nd gear and the shifter went to the floorboard... the damn thing is broke again.. layin out in the garage, Im so hot I could throw a wrench at it.[:@] So to my question.. who makes something better than the JUNK hd pewter shift lever? Im not goin through this again.

 

Kuryakn E-Z shifter

 

THANKS BUT that looks like the front shifter lever, the one I stripped out is the one that hooks onto the transmission, behind the primary

 

this is all i can find online..

Those of us that work on H-Ds for a living know that the shifter arm becoming loose is VERY common, I have replaced dozens upon dozens of them. The splines in the arm wear out and you can tighten the allen bolt until the head breaks off and it will do no good, it must be replaced. You cannot remove the arm from the shaft without removing the inner primary and then resealing it on installation. If you just pull it out enough to get the arm off, it will end up leaking... badly.
Be sure to replace the engine o-ring and seal all bolt holes with silicone.
The compensator is red loc-tited to 165ftlbs and I do not recommend using an air impact to remove it, you can throw the flywheels out of true. Starter bolts and jackshaft must be removed, do not over torque the jackshaft on installation.

This is not an operation I would recommend for a novice

 

drill and pin it

 

bprhpr,
I feel your pain. Last week in spearfish canyon SD I experienced the same thing. I was able to replace the bolt to get me home here in Washington State now I need to get it fixed once and for all. Is this a common problem? How do I prevent the same problem in the future?

Terry

 

Once you have a problem with this, you will usually have to replace BOTH the shifter and the shaft.

The root cause is, more ofter than not, chrome spillage into the splined area in the shifter. But as soon as it spins.... it toasts the shaft spline too. Then when you replace the shifter, the shaft spline is wimpy and the cycle starts over again.

TTM mentioned Kuryakyn shifters.... THey are good. I like the E-Z Brake shifters and breke pedal. I've had the same set on three bikes and am approaching 100k miles w/o issue.....

 

I was at the kurykn tent in Sturgis last week talking to a guy with a name
tag of Slag on his shirt. He inventented a shifter he calls slick shift. Had a
display set up and says kurykn is going to sell it in there catalog. It is a neet
set up, cannot over shift it and damage the splines not matter how hard you
stomp it. Part of the mechanism mount to the floor baord and has a couple of
rods and turnbuckles to adjust it. It does piviot up with the floor boards, so
if you drag the boards in a curve it will have no effect or damage to the shifter.
Not really sure how to explain how it works or looks any better. One of those
you have to see it things. It looked like a good design. He was asking 250.00
for it. I guess it will be a wait till it comes out, unless you contact kurykn maybe
they would give some info.

 

Barhph,

All FLHT's of all years from the Evo up to the Twinkies have the same flaw.

After talking to a few members on another board that have been down this road multiple times, There is a simple fix, but it takes some work.

Remove the inner and outer primary.
Remove the inner shifter shaft, clean the splines damn good with brake cleaner and compressed air.
Buy a stock inner shifter arm
go to HardWare or auto store and buy a Grade 8 bolt and all metal self locking nut. Bolt should be regular, not hex.
put red loctite on spline of shaft and put shifter on.
put red loctite on entire bolt.
put bolt all the way thru and use metal locknut, make sure there is loctite on it and cinch it down.
put inner primary on and check for interferance of nut and extended bolt.
cut section of inner primary off to remove interferance.
Bolt inner and outer primary back on.
Ride and keep and eye on the entire front shifter assembly for loosness as the miles go on.
Keep front shifter assembly tight with Grease, replacment of bushings in inner primary, or shimming with washers, or all of the above.



I went thru this deal with replacing it with the stock inner shifter arm and new stock bolt and the SOB only lasted 4500 miles before it **** the bed.

I followed the above method and it is rock solid well after 4500 miles.

 

Sorry for my rambling response to the wrong problem earlier.... Guess I should read the whole thread before throughing out a reply.

Sounds like 89 make be onto something...