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[chamo]

I was on a weekend ride, went to down shift coming into town.. looked down .. NO SHIFTER!!  The entire assembly had disappeared.  I was able to put it in 4th gear and limp into a local harley dealer.

The next day I found the part.  The splines that meet with the lever were stripped!!  It's a very poor design, only 10K on this 2015 CVO Limited. The metal feels very soft, the splines are too small and easily stripped.  I've heard from other riders that this is happening on many of the newer touring bikes.

Was there any warning?  Yes, in retrospect.  It was always difficult to shift, from the factory.  In the week prior to this problem, I noticed that I had to click the shifter more than once to get it to downshift.  Apparently that was happening when the splines stripped.

Another rider said Harley had a fix for this problem.  Has anyone heard what that might be?

[OBB]

Been happening for quite a while from what I've read. Actually happened to me on my '11 once when I felt the shifter levers bouncing against my foot. Had to stop on the side of the road to tighten the bolt back up. Happened to a guy on a group ride this year also. I now check mine about once a month even on my '15.

[Ridgerunr]

Blue Loctite the bolts.

[bakon]

Happened on my 2001 Ultra after about a year. Saw it twice last year on 2006-10 bikes. Not new, not a big problem, but shows up here and there. I found sometimes its because the bolt is loose or it was tightened when not splined together completely, leaving it loose to move on a hard shift, then the splines just pass by each other, between high spots for a while until that fails and shift falls past all the splines it wore off.

[grc]

It's not something new, as others have already stated, but rather something that has been happening for many years.  And you need to be aware of not only the foot lever to shaft joint, but also the shaft to linkage joint and the linkage to transmission shift shaft joint.  All should be checked for proper engagement and tightness of the pinch bolts.  This is just one more of the many things that should be right straight from the assembly plant but often aren't.  And don't get me started on the so-called dealer prep that is nothing more than extra profit.

Jerry

[J Heinlein]

This happened to me as well on my 2013 Ultra. Nothing unusual from our friends at the MOCO

[chamo]

Thanks for the replies.  I've owned a Limited since about 2005; this is the first time I've seen this problem.  Just to be clear, it wasn't a loose bolt.  They are still tightly griping the shaft.  The problem is the spline stripped.  As someone mentioned, possibly this was because initially it was not setup properly.  That is the splines on the shaft were not aligned properly with those on the transmission lever. 

I'll take everyone's advice and make sure to check this area frequently.

Thanks !

[sadunbar]

Back in 2004, on my 2004 SEEG (less than 5000 miles on the bike), the spline of my shifter arm stripped while far from home...  I didn't loose the shifter arm off the bike, but it was stripped to the point I could not tighten it enough to grip tightly enough to shift... So I removed the rear (heal) shifter arm and simply relocated it to the front...

In 2007, while touring in Canada with friends, a riding friend lost his entire shifter assembly on the Canadian version of our interstate highway.  I knew it fell off before he knew it fell off, because it bounced off the pavement and sailed past my head...  I quickly caught up to him and pointed..  He was fine on the highway so we rode to the nearest dealer.  The dealer told us they did not have the parts in stock and offered to order the parts!  We were probably 2000 miles from home.  What a joke...  I pointed out our situation and pointed to all the bikes on the floor that had the exact parts he needed for the warranty repair...  It took me showing them my bad side to convince them it was in their best interest to pull the parts from a stock bike.  Or they could watch me pull the parts, but one way or the other it we were going to get the parts we needed.  They had a mechanic come out and pull the parts from a floor bike, but then only handed us the parts and left us in the parking lot, as the store was closing.  Fortunately we collectively had the required tools and installed the replacement parts.  When we got home, my friend wrote a letter to both the dealership and the MOCO.  He never heard back from either...

[chamo]

Interesting story about having this problem in Canada.  I was just there, in August, and I was concerned this could have happened up there.  The only store I saw with parts was in Prince George.  My wife made the same comment.. "look the parts we need are on these new bikes."  We would definitely have gone to work.. she's a Latina from Venezuela and weights about 90 pounds, all muscle tempered with attitude.  Nobody touches the bike without her ok.

[FLSTFI Dave]

Yep, on a friends 13 Road Glide while we were in CA the arm that connects to the shifter shaft came loose and splines were stripped.

Mine has come loose three times on my 15 SERG, same place as friends.  Its in shop now being replaced under warranty.  Its the shaft that goes from the foot shifter to the are that goes across the top of the case.  It strips on the splines where the arm connects.

Long time Harley issue.

[covgrt]

It's a warrenty job the steel to soft

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[sadunbar]

It's a warrenty job the steel to soft

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Apparently the steel's been to soft for about 11 years...  I'm sure the problem will rise to the top of the list of problems the MOCO engineers are working to correct sometime soon...   

[covgrt]

Well that's what they told me and replaced it so who cares

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[ultrafxr]

It could also be the shift lever itself.  Several years ago I bought an extended lever from E-Z Brake and while it did not come off it got loose and and did not shift correctly.  A phone call to them revealed a production problem in some levers.  The slot was not machined correctly and was too narrow.  No matter how much you torqued down on the set screw the slot was not large enough to compress sufficiently to tighten up on the splines in the shaft.  E-Z Brake sent me a new lever.  I've been using it for almost 10 years now on three bikes with no problem.

[chamo]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.  sounds like this is not an uncommon problem.  According to the mechanic detective at the local dealer, whom I trust, there was no loctite on the screw holding the shaft in place.