06 Sportster shifts from 3rd to neutral

[tigersfriend]

I just bought my first Harley so I am not familiar with the internals of the motor, I have a lot of experience with Japanese bike engines so I understand transmissions. The problem I am having is sometimes when I shift from 3rd to 2nd, it goes right past 2nd gear and goes into neutral (the neutral light comes on as well). It does this about one out of every ten times I downshift, whether I am downshifting from 3rd to 2nd, or all the way from 5th down to 1rst. I noticed that if I am very carefull, I can upshift every single gear without making any clunk sound at all, except going from 2nd to third, it always has a clunk going into 3rd which I thought was odd as that problem usually happens between 1rst and 2nd in almost any bike. The engine has 20K miles on it and otherwise runs perfect and I am really hoping I am not dealing with an internal problem such as a bent shifting fork.

Please, can anyone help, I LOVE my first Harley and dread the thought of having to tear the entire engine down for what is so far a minor irritant.

Thanks, Chris

 

[Jack Klarich]

I just bought my first Harley so I am not familiar with the internals of the motor, I have a lot of experience with Japanese bike engines so I understand transmissions. The problem I am having is sometimes when I shift from 3rd to 2nd, it goes right past 2nd gear and goes into neutral (the neutral light comes on as well). It does this about one out of every ten times I downshift, whether I am downshifting from 3rd to 2nd, or all the way from 5th down to 1rst. I noticed that if I am very carefull, I can upshift every single gear without making any clunk sound at all, except going from 2nd to third, it always has a clunk going into 3rd which I thought was odd as that problem usually happens between 1rst and 2nd in almost any bike. The engine has 20K miles on it and otherwise runs perfect and I am really hoping I am not dealing with an internal problem such as a bent shifting fork.

Please, can anyone help, I LOVE my first Harley and dread the thought of having to tear the entire engine down for what is so far a minor irritant.

Thanks, Chris

This could be something simple , but with no trap door you will have to split the case to work on any thing internal in the tranny

 

[tigersfriend]

WOW, thanks for the quick reply Jack. I really hope you are referring to removing the primary cover or whatever is on the other side of the motor and not splitting the center cases and tearing the entire engine apart.

 

[Jack Klarich]

WOW, thanks for the quick reply Jack. I really hope you are referring to removing the primary cover or whatever is on the other side of the motor and not splitting the center cases and tearing the entire engine apart.

04 and newer have no trap door, you have to split the cases