Shifting gears on a 47F

[Chris in Japan]

Hi guys,

I made a trial run on the 47F (first time since I bought it) and it was quite an adventure...

The good thing is that starts ten times easier that the shovel.

The bad thing is that I had terrible problems to catch each gear.

I know the pin and the spring with the adjusting screw that ratchets in the groves of the drum (gear box)...

It is like having problem to take the gear out, then like "speeding" too much the drum and then missing the next gear. The geometry in the lever gate is not helping me much to avoid this.

I am tempted to think that the pin & spring assembly is too tight, that I should reduce spring tension.

I have to tell the truth also - this is my first HD with hand shifting! Experienced I am certainly not!!!

Any advice, both on the spring tension as well correct shifting in these HDs will be welcomed!

Thanks!

Kind regards.

Chris.

[Sargehere]

...

I have to tell the truth also - this is my first HD with hand shifting! Experienced I am certainly not!!! Any advice, both on the spring tension as well correct shifting in these HDs will be welcomed!
Thanks!
Kind regards.
Chris.

Chris, go over here: http://www.caimag.com/forum/f14/hand...html#post21909

That's my little Harley handshifting primer on another forum. On the "shifting hard to get in the registration indents," I think you very well may have too much tension on the ball-on-a-spring. It doesn't take a lot, and there is no published guidance on that, except this, that I found in the 1940-47 Knuckle/U-Flat Service Manual (p.142):

"In order to shift into different gear positions with minimum effort, and at same time making sure that shifter cam will remain licked in any gerar osition, it is essential that tension of shifter cam plunger spring be correctly adjusted.
spring tensioin will be correct when adjusting screw is adjusted so distance from end of screw to shifter fork shaft is 2-1/4 inches."

That's the shaft through the middle of the drum, so with the top off the trans and it turned upside-down on the bench, they're talking about 2-1/4" horizontally, from the shaft, outward to the top of the screwhead.
Then, though it doesn't say it, "spike" the screw in place by centerpunching the aluminum trans top right next to the screw, in about 2 places. That will keep the screw from turning on its own. Hope this helps!

[Chris in Japan]

That was a very graphical explanation, Gerry! Excellent thread! Many thanks...

I read also that setting information on the manual but bothers me that requests to be done with the open cover!!! Certainly is the accurate way but I would expect this adjustment to be also done without disassembling nothing...

I wonder if "loose as much you can and start to tighten little by little until it works" is a good approach... Am I putting something on risk if I do so?

[Sargehere]

...
I wonder if "loose as much you can and start to tighten little by little until it works" is a good approach... Am I putting something on risk if I do so?

Only risk would be having the screw fall out from lack of attention.
You are running a tankside shift gate, aren't you? That will get you to the location of the notch in the shifting drum. It's not critical; you're just putting an amount of pressure on the spring, so it's "variable." I just looked at mine down in the garage. Same set up as you have. The head of the screw is sticking out 1/8" above the hole in the trans top. Set it there.

[Chris in Japan]

Aha! That's a good reference, Gerry! I will start there...

My knuck is a stock 47 low compression, 74". The gear box is accordingly a 3-shift. I guess this is not affecting the set up.

What are you riding, Gerry?

[Chris in Japan]

Just went to the garage, Gerry. My setting screw is showing off 4.4mm, but who knows what a spring is inside!

Reading your thread, I will work also on the clutch. It IS dragging and this is certainly not helping.

[Sargehere]

Three millimeters is 1/8 of an inch. So you'll be increasing the pressure a little taking it to there. That's definitely in the ballpark. The adjustment of the clutch is very important, to keep things from dragging. You may even pull your primary completely off, remove the releasing disk with all the springs in place by removing the center locking nut completely and using a large fender washer (large o.d. and small i.d.) and put the locking nut back on the adjusting screw.
THEN you remove the three slotted adjusting (long stud) nuts and take out ALL of your plates, and clean them and the inside of your clutch drum (gasoline works fine, just don't be smoking while you do it!)
You can even "roughen up" the friction plates afterwards with a wire brush or by rubbing them on a concrete surface in a rotary motion for a few moments or something, then button it all back up,

[Chris in Japan]

Definitively what I will do in the next rainy weekend, Gerry! Many thanks for all the recommendations!