Andrews 208500 mainshaft issue

[bobphd]

Has anyone else had the issue I am having with Andrews 208500 transmission main shaft ,OEM no. 35040-50 , for 36-64 Harley Davidson big twins ? The clutch hub taper is about .100” longer , and the small end diameter is about .020” smaller because of the extra length than 3 other used mainshafts I have here . 6 used clutch hubs I have here do not tighten on the taper before the 37496-41 clutch hub nut bottoms on the start of the taper . A new repop hub does tighten but the nut is still bottomed and I suspect it is not as tight on the taper as it should be. I spoke with engineering at Andrews and they have not had anyone else contact them on this . I sent them the shaft and they said that it measures to their specs. I purchased another 208500 from a different vender and it to is the same . I have used several of these in the past with used hubs and not had an issue. The used hubs I have are probably OEM and have been taken off and on who knows how many times but 2 are off of transmissions from running bikes and worked fine with the mainshafts that were in them. I was able to put the second 208500 in a lathe and cut .100” off the length of the small end of the taper and all is good.

Bob

[dukekleman]

Bob,

Yes, I sure have. I've been meaning to contact them about it but have not.
Here are some images that I took of the issue. Feel free to forward them onto Andrews.
IMG_20250517_132256543~2.jpg IMG_20250517_135220242~2.jpg IMG_20250519_121624927.jpg

Hope this helps,

Duke Kleman

[bobphd]

Thanks for the reply Duke ! I pretty much have the same pictures and have sent them to Andrews . I gave up on trying to post pictures here because of the file too large issue and my computer illiteracy. Is your third picture from a 36-40 clutch that you counter bored to go over the too long Andrews taper ? I also thought of counter boring the 41 - 84 nut but found the problem before I assembled the transmission .

Bob