64' flh jockey shift

[scoot]

I'm new to restoring these old machines and have a question I have yet to receive a straight answer on. Currently I'm restoring my 64' FLH DuoGlide and have verified I have reproduction tanks. I have tracked down an original set of tanks that do not have the bracket for the shift gate. Before I make the purchase I need some clarification on whether I should have a jockey shift, and if so, should it be the police style using the ratchet top or a gate style on the tank. According to my Palmers book, the "H" denotes hand shift, but I'm told it could be either hand or foot shift. What models had what style shifter?

[exeric]

The "H" in the FLH prefix has nothing to do with hand or foot shifting. Some say the "H" means "HOT" as in cams. Chris Haynes would know.

[exeric]

I got caught up in the first part of your question. Hand shifting and foot shifting were options that were available in 1964. It's up to you if your building a bike from parts. In other words, if you're scaring up parts and want to go to hand shift, that is perfectly fine as long as you find the correct parts used in 1964. The motor is a stand alone unit and is not necessarily affected by chassis options. As for "police style" there is really no such thing. Some cops liked foot shift and some cops liked hand shift. I guess it depended on how much pull they had or what they were issued.

[Chris Haynes]

Boy O boy. Lesson time here.
First of all a jockey Shift is a modified, custom shifter located directly on the transmission lid under the riders butt.
A stock bike would be either Hand or Foot shift.
A hand shift has the shift lever mounted to the gas tank.
A foot shift had the shifter linkage just above the left footboard.
In 1964 both were available. The correct tanks with emblem mounts were the same 1963-1965 on the 3 1/2 gallon tanks.
I guess the important thing to know now is which lid you have on the transmission? Hand or footshift?

[scoot]

The lid on the transmission is a ratchet top and it doesn't have reverse even though this bike had a side car for at least the past 26 years. In what scenario was the ratchet lid used with the frame mounted hand shift? If I'm suppose to have the tank shift, I guess I will be passing on the tanks I found and keep looking.

[Chris Haynes]

The ratchet lid is used with the footshift.

[Lonnie]

To help clarify Chris' statement, the ratchet top was never used with the hand shift, therefore if you want to stay with a ratchet top and be "correct", you must use foot shift.

What confuses people to some extent is if you reference the V-Twin Catalog, you will see that they sell the '66-style hand shift that clamps onto the left downtube under the tank with one option being a straight shifter gate for use with a ratchet top transmission. Though not correct for a '64 you can pursue this as an option. FYI, they work great - I used one on a 1996 FLSTN for a couple of years with the five speed - that sure did get some looks. (And I made a concerted effort to distort H-D history by telling anyone who asked that it was a factory option!)

If you want to run the 3-speed and reverse transmission, you must run the hand shift with the correct gate as there was never a ratchet top for that transmission (and wouldn't that make for interesting shifting if it was!). There were gates available for the knuckle-style tanks, pan-style tanks and the clamp-on shifters.

[scoot]

Thanks for the clarification guys. Lonnie, you were spot on as to the root of my confusition. I was told the 66' style hand shift that clamps onto the downtube was a factory option for 64' and therefore would be period correct for a restoration.