He guys love the site I’m having trouble with my Street Bob I installed a Kuryaken forward control set over the winter now that I’ve taken the bike out twice so far this season in finding it very hard to shift almost having to basically force the shifter up with my foot and neutral is almost impossible to get by foot. Is there a certain angle the shifter should be at or the fact that I also changed the fluids over the winter and never started the bike afterwards.
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Try disconnecting your shift linkage from your rear shift arm (off of the transmission). Shift the Transmission with the rear shift arm. If the arm does not spring back on it’s own, you have a broken Harley shifter pawl spring. If the shift linkage, lever / assembly is tight, something is set up incorrectly. Try loosening until you can pin point your tight spot.
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3 Responses to “Harley Shifter Pawl”
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I'm putting a chrome shifter linkage on my 04 fat boy. Does it matter if the shifter moves into another gear?
I am going to take a different tack on the answers I have seen. I have an 05 Softail and was having the same problem you seem to be having. I had about 50k on the bike when it started to happen. At first I thought it was the shift rod since the rubber grommets that keep dirt and dust out of the two pivot points were cracked, so I got a new rod adjusted it to the exact length as the old one, installed it with no luck. Finally took it off to see if the shifter lever that goes into the transmission was binding(broken internal spring as mentioned), nope that was not it. Rod was fine. With everything disconnected I tried to move the shift lever that is attached to the frame, it was the problem it was binding. I took it apart and cleaned both the inside of the tube attached to the frame and the outside forward control piece that fits inside the pivot point with emery cloth, there was a little crud on both pieces. I replace both O rings(inner and outer), cleaned both pieces with alchol and brake cleaner(be careful of paint with brake cleaner), lubricated both inside and outside with brake caliper grease worked it around several times and it has been working fine ever since. I had read elsewhere this problem can be caused by washing the bike a lot(me). Hope this helps.
Do I have to remove the transmission box or is there a way to get to the shift pawl to replace it, like from the side door perhaps