VL main shaft

[34VLRay]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27183
Rebuilding early VL transmission, removed main shaft. Found the tapered end/clutch hub inner race cracked. Was able to remove this section ,l had never seen anything like this. Did HD make them this way or just a coincidence??

[Jerry Wieland]

Ray 1932 and down used a split bushing that was soldered to the recess in the mainshaft and then spun freely in high gear.

Jerry

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27183
Rebuilding early VL transmission, removed main shaft. Found the tapered end/clutch hub inner race cracked. Was able to remove this section ,l had never seen anything like this. Did HD make them this way or just a coincidence??

[Steve Slocombe]

All the Harley Big Twins through 1930 used a stepped mainshaft with the split bushings. Starting in 1931 the main drive gear had a larger hole through it, a bronze bushing was fitted inside, and an unstepped mainshaft was used. Those split bushings are a pain, as you need to solder them on, fill the joins, and surface finish to fit the main gear. Many JD and 1930 VL owners are now retrofitting their 3 speed gearboxes with the 1931 and up parts. The later main drive gears have become hard to find, so the 1925-30 main drive gears are being bored out, or the 1931 bushing thinned, to fit the later mainshaft. While we're there, the 1932-36 countershaft gear is also a better design than the early one. The early cluster gears use the short 2289-17 rollers, and the races are nearly always worn past the +0.0010" oversize rollers available. The later cluster gear uses the longer 2289-25 roller at one end and the 2306-32 rollers at the other end, also used for a long time on the small twin gearbox and readily available in oversizes.

[34VLRay]

Thanks for responding Steve. My question was the end of shaft from stepped area back towards taper this piece came off like it was a separate piece. The shaft itself looked like it was machined for a sleeve, were these shafts two pieces?

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear Ray, no the shafts are one piece. It looks like the bearing surface at the drive end was so bad that someone cut down the mainshaft and made a sleeve, a heroic repair I have not seen before.

[34VLRay]

The only thing I could think of is this might be a main shaft from Taiwan Ted. That’s typical of his products