1987 fxrc
My name is xxxx from Saskatchewan Canada. Last week I had a Rivera pro clutch installed by my local bike shop on my 1987 fxrc, 113ci S&S, stock five speed. Everything worked great for about two hours when it seemed to jump out of 1st. gear pulling away from a stop sign. I engaged the clutch, reapplied 1st gear, released the clutch and…..nothing, no 1st, no 2nd, no any gear. I got the bike home and on the lift, the rear wheel turned freely in all gears. While draining the oil and removing the primary I turned the wheel it seemed to click and went into gear. I topped up the oil, started the bike, put it in 1st, the wheel started to spin like it should then stopped, I was able to hold the rear wheel with my hand as the bike idled in 1st gear. I know very little about trannys and clutches but i’m thinking this is a tranny issue as the clutch is moving in and out as it should. Has this happened to others? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
xxxx
Hi there xxxx. From the symptoms you have described it sounds like you have a clutch adjustment issue.
Your transmission has three shift forks and if one of them gets damaged it can cause a “false neutral” or no neutral situation. If this happens it would only affect one or two of gears, not all of them consistently.
An improper clutch or clutch cable adjustment will affect all the gears across the board. If you don’t have enough free play in your clutch adjustment the clutch plates can warm up, expand, warp and exacerbate the problem. This will make it feel like the clutch is moderately engaged through all the gears and may quite possibly ruin all of your clutch plates from getting burned.
Without being able to see the issue that is where I would go first.
Thanks,
Michael Durham