| Author | Message | ||
     Impulse_101 |
As I was on my way to work today I downshifted to take a curve. When I tried to upshift after the curve the shifter would not move up and the bike wouldn't shift up as well. I downshifted into 1st gear and pulled into a parking lot and called my wife to come and drive me into work. I didn't have time to look at anything on the bike and I'm open to suggestions to what to look for. Any ideas guys? JT | ||
| Patrickh |
did you check to make sure the shifter was not binding at the pivot or linkage? can you hear anything rattling around in your primary at idle? could have lost a clip on the shifter arm. sounds like a detent plate/shifter paul issue. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Is the shifter flopping around, or does it feel "stuck". Start by pulling the primary cover off and looking at your primary tensioner shoe backplate. After that, you will have to pull the clutch / stator / primary chain as a unit, and can inspect the pawl assembly. If it is not that, you will have to remove the tranny (easy on tuber, a mess on the XB). Look at the 5th gear drive assembly, as well as the tranny itself. | ||
| Impulse_101 |
The shifter feels normal except that it won't "catch" when I move it up. It is still sitting center and it takes the same amount of force to move as it did before. JT | ||
| Paint_shaker |
I just had a simular problem, cept mine would not shift up or down and was stuck in 2nd gear... Fearing a big $$$ job I took it to the shop... Turns out the primary chain adjusting shoe had worn out and broke into two pieces. One of he pieces lodged somewhere inside the primary jamming the shifter... Rather simple fix, but it appears that I was slow to do a good 20,000 mile check... | ||
| Sportyeric |
Would the pins backing out of the detente plate have that effect? This thread kinda belongs in the Knowledge Vault, tranny section. You'd get more input. And find info already there on procedures required. Taking off the primary cover and having a look is the starting point in any case. Nothing in there that's hard to fix until you get to the tranny itself, IMHO. | ||
| Whodom |
You should be able to tell if the adjuster is broken without pulling the primary cover. Just pull the chain inspection cover off (above the shifter shaft) and check the primary chain tension. If it's really loose, odds are the adjuster is broken. If you've never replaced the original part, you've got the old breakage-prone tensioner that was upgraded in 2001. It's a pretty easy job to change it. The X-1 Files page has photos and basic instructions for changing it: http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/Marriott/x1/#Trans Scroll down a little and look in the right column for primary tensioner info. (Message edited by whodom on July 31, 2005) | ||
| Impulse_101 |
I've got a warranty on my bike. Whatever is wrong it will be fixed for free, Unless the adjuster can be swapped in a hour for less than $50 in parts. If not I'm leaving it to Racine H-D or Hal's to take care of this time. JT | ||
| Impulse_101 |
B.T.W. Was the new style adjuster a recall item or just an new style part that you can replace on your own? JT | ||
| Outrider |
Just an upgrade part. No recall as it is also a sacrificial part. | ||
| Impulse_101 |
I stopped off after work and picked up the bike. I was able to get it to shift up to neutral, second, third and fourth but when it's in fourth gear it won't move up at all. So now I have no first gear and no fifth gear. I'm going to go put the primary chain window and see what I can find. Regardless of what I find I'm taking it to Racine H-D tomorrow. JT | ||
| Outrider |
May you be in and out of the shop within an hour with a perfect running bike!!! | ||
| José_quiñones |
Sounds like your shift drum is shot. You probably have a burr on it which is keeping the shift forks from sliding like they should. You need to pull the tranny out and remove the shift drum, my guess is that you'll be able to slide two of the shift forks off the drum very easily and one of them won't move past a certain point. Don't pay attention to the service manual when it tells you to remove the engine output belt sprocket or to remove the "c" clip on the trap door for the lower gear shaft. The Tranny will slide out without doing either of these things. I had the same issue, the pictures are around here somewhere. I ended up upgrading to the baker shift drum kit. Shifts better, still need to fiddle with the pawl adjustment cause it misses the shift between 3rd and 4th sometimes. | ||
| Denfromphilly |
I took apart my primary this weekend and replaced the tensioner. You can check it/inspect it with a dental mirror and flashlight through the primary inspection window. I could see mine was the old style and was cracked in half, lose but intact. Glad I read about it here and checked it! Hardest thing was removing the old paper gasket otherwise it's all pretty easy, a lot of wrench work but no rocket science. Put in the new shift detent too, drum pins were all aligned ok, seems to shift a little more positive but not a big difference. Ok for a $3 part and taking it apart anyway.... | ||
| Impulse_101 |
I'm glad that someone got something out of my troubles. At least I have a backup bike (I'll just steal my wifes CBR) JT PS Jose, due to what you said I'm sure that this is a job for the shop. I don't plan on spending my whole week of vacation messing around with the bike when I can get it fixed for free.  | ||
| Jackbequick |
Denfromphilly - How many miles on that? I just figured out I have the old style on mine but it only has 3,100 miles. I'm going to get one ordered soon. Jack | ||
| Denfromphilly |
Hi Jack, about 14,600. Order it from DaveS at Appleton HD in the sponsor section and you get a discount too. The part is about $4? and the gasket was like $20! A lot of people here like synthetic oil in the tranny too, it does shift nice, Mobil 1 20w50 or Mobil 1 gear oil 75w90 is the favorite but I have even read good reports about Mobil 1 75w140. I used Sport Trans last time and it worked good too. Don't get redline shockproof, nice stuff but does not work well with the wet clutch and stator. My tranny and primary looked like brand new too, very little wear on any part and it had HD service stickers all over it so I assume it always had HD lubricants until I owned it. There are a couple little tricks on the X Files that can make it go easier so when you are ready feel free to write and I will pass along the website address. Den | ||
| Jackbequick |
$4.00? For the whole tensioner assembly? That seems like a good deal. I'll have to give Dave a call tomorrow and get that ordered. Last week I bought a gasket from a local chopper shop (not sure if it was a H-D part or aftermarket) but it was metal with a rubbery/plastic layer on both sides and it was only $6.00. Maybe he made a mistake? I'm going to ask him if that is an aftermarket item. It felt and looked like a good gasket. I'm using the Mobil 1 75w90 now and Mobil 1 15w50 in the engine. People complain about the smell of the 75w90, that has some sulphur additives. I'm an a old school, non-CNC, machinist of sorts, I like the smell. Brings to mind perfect threads and deep, chatter free, parting cuts. I sure miss having a lathe around. :>  I just inspected my primary side looking for a noise, pulled the alternator and clutch too, then put it all back together. A "training run" as it were. Jack | ||
| Captainkirk |
Jack; Get the tensioner changed as soon as possible. The spring on mine was broken clean in two and you couldn't even tell until it was out of the cover and in my hand. Scary. | ||
| Jackbequick |
I'm not ignoring the tensioner issue, I was chasing a noise and had the primary open, clutch pulled, etc., and noticed then that I had the old model. The top is lightly scuffed from wear and I even took it apart to check for a crack. It is not an active threat yet but I'm going to get a replacement ordered up today. I'll tag the old one and put it in a safe place, 50 years from now maybe my grandson will put it on eBay and it will wind up on a restored tuber in a motorcycle museum somewhere. I listen to the chatter here about the non-tubers and understand that they are great bikes. But I'm a totally tubular kind of guy. Jack | ||
| Reepicheep |
I thought the tensioner assembly was like $15 or something. I agree with Kirk, until I had it out, mine looked fine. When it was out, it was clearly completely broken. That gasket sounds like a good one. The Harley paper ones sucked. Aftermarket ones I got at a local mom and pop shop (James paper maybe?) with the RTV bead on both sides worked pretty well, though were annoying to keep in place on assebmbly. The James metal gaskets and the new Harley metal gaskets worked outstanding, and were drop dead simple to install. That last harley gasket I reused at least twice with no leak. Many of the harley paper gaskets never even went in the first time without a leak. | ||
| Denfromphilly |
The tensioner is a scary item when you consider it will break at the worst time. You know it will break under load when you are thrashing the bike and then wedge in the primary chain stopping the entire drive train in an instant. The energy of the motor power and inertia, the tranny and bike inertia will be focused through the primary system and break the weakest link, either the motor casting at the crank or the tranny bolts (I would guess). When I took mine apart it became obvious it would be a disaster if it broke. Now that I replaced mine it makes the slightest little whine when I rev the motor with the clutch in or down shift and decelerate. I assume this is normal till it breaks in. I think mine was very cheap but could be wrong on the price. Whatever it was was cheap compared to the consequence! Den 99X1 | ||
| Whodom |
After reading various threads here and the stuff at the X-1 files, I replaced my tensioner before I even rode my S3. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Actually, the breakage is not generally catastrophic. You just start machining your primary cover from the inside out, and your shifting gets terrible. | ||
| Jackbequick |
I had a conversation with Daves this morning, my new tensioner will be on its way soon. I also needed a front brake lever and that had to be ordered in. For the record, the brake lever did not match the clutch lever, it had a longer reach and the last inch at the ball end was bent further back when I got the bike. So I tried to match them up. Whoops, say goodbye to the ball end. Oh well, filed it smooth, touched it up with a black Sharpie, and it looks okay and works fine. I think the tensioner was like $13 from Daves. The lever was like $22 but I can't stand to look at the one I broke. Jack |
