shifting issues Are they all like this??

[carmine73]

first lets get the bike particulars out of the way
1975 xlch kicker only left side shift foward controles
when i bought this bike it ran pretty shitty stuck advancer bad points ...the works i adjusted the clutch but it seems to be dragging a bit and that would make finding neutral a real nightmare but this bike has always been difficult to shift. so difficult in fact that i actually broke the orrigional mid controle clear off the bike. Is this a common thing do these bikes tend to be a pain to shift or is this due to a crappy clutch or shift mech im thinkin about messin with the clutch. heres a question has anybody ever sucessfully kickstarted an xl with it still in gear. i tried like hell but couldn't get her to fire.

[ridged warren]

i have been able to kick mine in gear with the bike well warm and using the clutch. like at red lights and stuff when it occasionally dies

[Crowbar]

Sounds like your clutch is dragging. If you can't adjust it out you'll have to take it apart. How bout oil? My '70 has a dry clutch but I think '75's are wet.
When I started riding the ironhead I thought it was a bitch to shift, I was always fishing around for neutral and was never sure what gear I was in. Poor Honda Boy! The Honda shifted effortlessly with a flick of the toe. Now my Harley shifts smoothly too but it did take getting used to. Gotta be in the right RPM range and give the lever a good lift, not a little toe flip, and its moving through the gears without any clunkin' and chunkin'. If I give the lever a little tap the tranny goes in neutral or "between gears". One weird thing it does is when you put it in gear for the first time of the day the bike gives a good clunk even though the clutch lever is pulled in.The longer its been sitting the bigger the clunk. The boys tell me this is a dry clutch thing and not to worry about it.
Good luck widdit

[Gone]

Do you find that it is only hard to find neutral or do you find that downshifting requires a bit more pressure than you would expect? My 74 XLCH kick only right side shift would be hard to find neutral and also required firm pressure to downshift. If I kept the idle up a bit when downshifting the tranny would downshift with no problem (like butter). After adjusting the clutch over and over again by following the instructions in the manual I ended up with the same hard downshifting if I let the throttle go back to idle position. Finally I decide, instead of starting at the beginning of the adjustment procedure, to loosen the clutch adjustment locknut and turned the adjustment screw clockwise 1/8 turn and that fixed my firm (hard) downshifting problem.

It seems that by starting at the beginning of the clutch adjustment procedure everytime, I ended up at the same point (same adjustment) everytime.

I do find that it is much easier to find neutral with the bike moving rather than with the bike stopped. If I am stopped, increasing the idle a bit (with the throttle) also helps.

I have never tried to start the bike with it in gear and the clutch lever pulled in so I can't really answer that question.

[ironhead red]

Carmine,
1975 & 1976 are bastard shifting years of sportsters. Feds said all 1975 & newer models will shift on the left, so Harley just ran that junk linkage setup from the right over to the left to get by until 1977 when the shifter actually comes outta the left. You might want to try adjusting all that linkage, but the no. 1 reason for shit shifting of those years is a worn bushing in the cam cover. Make absolutely sure that bushing is tight & not oval shaped. If your bushing is good, & the linkage adjusted right, then your shift forks may be the culprit. I just convert all 75's & 76's to right side shift... the way they were designed to be. Good luck

Red

[carmine73]

Well yalls have answerd my question with a firm yeppers they tend to be a pain in the john brown hind parts to shift. but i really done it by adding foward controles i decreased my shift lever ratio to a 1 to 1 ratio on leverage so i basicly screwed myself good here. i think what i am going to do is increase my shift leverage by moving the crossover shaft above the primary and make a nice big lever to compliment my polished primary cover. I'll add a few sealed roller berings and be done with this mess. besides that stupid crossover shaft rides really way too close to my chain anyway

[blacksmith.jb]

I had a shifting problem too but easy fix. one day she simple wouldn't go to 2º gear. stoped in the nearest bar, drunk a couple of beers and it hit me. I opened the oil bag and with my fingers applied a lot of oil on the control axle. well it's a shity control instead of a bad gear case :D