Mission Control - We've lost our shifter

[sburns]

Now this happened today.



Part of my shifter (the heel part) fell off, twice!!

Both times I was lucky. The first time was at Lowville Park off Guelph Line. I was doing a U turn and I heard it fall off. Did a quick pitstop and put it back on, it was tight (I have tools on the bike). The second time I was outside of Fergus going along HWY 19, I got to Belwood and had to do a shift and nothing was there . Turned around and found it on the road a bit up the way. I can still shift with my toe shifter so I wasn't stranded or anything. But I am so used to heel shifting now.

Well at least I got some toe shifting practice in.

Looking at the shaft where this slides onto, it appears to be ground down. It has ridges (notches), looks like I just need to replace the shaft part.

 

[Evoex]

yikes.

 

[ken21]

This happened to me before on my sv, ended up adding some blue Loctite and the problem hasn't reoccurred in a few years.

 

[sburns]

This happened to me before on my sv, ended up adding some blue Loctite and the problem hasn't reoccurred in a few years.

I was thinking about doing something like that. I might try after I fully review everything.

 

[ReSTored]

.............. looks like I just need to replace the shaft part.

Looks like you got the shaft on this.................

Can you drill the shifter/shaft to put some kind of a key or pin in to fix this vs. changing out the shaft?

 

[Wingboy]

Blue Loctite, safety wire. If the splines on the shifter are worn, you will need to replace it.

 

[sburns]

Here are some pictures to better detail the problem.

Heel shifter location


Shifter end


The shifter shaft


I looked into the parts for the shaft, which is the shaft and a bushing, come out to about $25. But I am a bit concerned with the shfter it does appear some of the spines are worn.

 

[Wingboy]

Safety wire will fix that.

 

[sburns]

Safety wire will fix that.

Hey @Wingboy please, more details!

 

[Ash]

Also double-check whether you've got the bolt in the right way. One half of that bolt hole should be smooth, and the other half should be threaded, and the head of the bolt should be closest to the unthreaded portion. If you put the bolt in backwards, the bolt will tighten and hold the shifter on the shaft (because of the groove in the shaft), but it will not be able to pull the two sides of the clamp together.

Safety wire involves drilling a small hole in the head of the bolt, then running small stainless wire through the hole and attaching the wire to something fixed, like the arm of the shifter. The wire should be snug enough so that it prevents the bolt from being able to unscrew itself.

 

[Wingboy]

Easy if you have a handful of tiny drill bits. (Cobalt)

 

[Freddy F]

If it were me, I would liberally apply standard JB Weld to the shaft and inside the clamp part, assemble, and tighten it down before the JB Weld hardens. If it ever needs to be taken apart, it should be possible if you spread apart the clamp with a flat blade screwdriver in order to break the JB Weld. Its just a very very good metal enhanced epoxy. (well, supposedly metal enhhanced) Use loctite on the bolt.

 

[TwistedKestrel]

Something seems a little weird about this - the shifter should be trapped on the shaft by the clamp screw. Like if the screw is there, the shifter could be loose, but it shouldn't come off. It would seem they specified a screw too small, or the hole should have been made closer to the shaft.

I can see by the squished threads on the screw that it was somewhat interrupted by the splines on the shaft, but not nearly enough. Bad design?

 

[GreyGhost]

Something seems a little weird about this - the shifter should be trapped on the shaft by the clamp screw. Like if the screw is there, the shifter could be loose, but it shouldn't come off. It would seem they specified a screw too small, or the hole should have been made closer to the shaft.

I can see by the squished threads on the screw that it was somewhat interrupted by the splines on the shaft, but not nearly enough. Bad design?

I would be inclined to think replacement bolt. The thick part of the shaft should clear the gap to seat in that groove. He has threads in the gap so the groove does nothing. My guess is there should be a shoulder bolt in there and someone replaced it with a conventional bolt.

 

[sburns]

Something seems a little weird about this - the shifter should be trapped on the shaft by the clamp screw. Like if the screw is there, the shifter could be loose, but it shouldn't come off. It would seem they specified a screw too small, or the hole should have been made closer to the shaft.

I can see by the squished threads on the screw that it was somewhat interrupted by the splines on the shaft, but not nearly enough. Bad design?

Yeah it's not the best design, from my research they actually made this worse on 2014+ models.

The shifter is a clamp design, and the screw in the clamp fits within the channel on the shifter shaft. But the channel doesn't appear to be deep enough to stop the part from slipping off So yes it is more dependant on the spines being in good shape. Basically comes down to wear and tear.

For me I am surpirsed there isn't a screw on the end of the shifter shaft where a washer/end cap or something also keeps it all in place.

 

[Robbo]

Can the bolt be installed from either the bottom or the top? Or only one possible direction?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[blackcamaro]

Pretty common on the Touring Harley’s. Usually you can leave the shaft and just replace the shifter and bolt. I think you have some decent mileage on that bike so maybe the shaft too.

In a pinch I’ve seen online where guys will cut a little piece of pop can to slide in between the shaft and shifter giving it more bite on the splines.

I used to take the heal shifter off so I could keep my feet closer to the rear of the floor boards, had more of a mid control feel that I liked.

 

[bitzz]

First thing I would do is toss the pinch bolt and go get a hardened one. (You can see where the thread that is supposed to intrude into the shaft is worn away. That shouldn't happen, but it's a cheap stainless bolt, so here we are).
Secondly, clamp that end in a vise, or on a press, to make the circle a LITTLE smaller, It would be best if you shimmed where the bolt hole is, so the two sides stay parallel.
When you go to install it, drive a wedge (a chisel) into the slot to widen it a LITTLE, just enough to get it on the shaft.
Get a pinch bolt long enough to stick out the other side far enough to install a lockwasher and a jam nut... and REEF THAT MF DOWN TIGHT.

... and occasionally check that the jam nut is still on there.

 

[sburns]

Can the bolt be installed from either the bottom or the top? Or only one possible direction?


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It is only 1 Direction, the part which it screws into is the other end of the clamp/shifter

 

[sburns]

Pretty common on the Touring Harley’s. Usually you can leave the shaft and just replace the shifter and bolt. I think you have some decent mileage on that bike so maybe the shaft too.

In a pinch I’ve seen online where guys will cut a little piece of pop can to slide in between the shaft and shifter giving it more bite on the splines.

I used to take the heal shifter off so I could keep my feet closer to the rear of the floor boards, had more of a mid control feel that I liked.

Someone on another fourm said to wrap the shifter shaft in tin foil. Same idea I guess.

My plan right now is to replace the shifter shaft, and the bolts on the shifter themselves.

Yeah I believe I am at 120,000 k now, so not bad, I think those parts did ok.