harleyKmodel

I have discovered that there were two versions of the gear shift lever. One with splines where it mounts on the shaft and one that is smooth. My smooth version moved on the shaft and kept it in 4th gear all the way home until I could figure out what the hell was going on.

I have heard that the smooth style was to avoid accidental breakage of transmission parts. The lever is supposed to give way before the interior parts do in theory.

I guess I'd rather have a splined lever like every other bike I've ever been on. Am I going to regret that somehow? I've got Andrews gears and an upgraded trap door. What were the weak parts? Were guys hammering on these back in the day?

Z

The Shift Shaft will twist and break if over worked by crashing, or stomping on shifter. Better to have the shifter rotate if too much pressure is exerted on it than have the shaft break. This requires full tear down on pre trap door of course. Early Ks had the splined version. Speaking of shifters always replace the 2 coil springs in the shifter itself as they will sag and break over time resulting in transmission becoming inoperable.

splines need both lever and shaft.
splined levers give no adjust-ability for ergonomics.

some more although a bit deeper than your query.
http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/showpost.php?p=4894528&postcount=105

A little more on this the early splined one, 1952-53, it has a tapered narrow center section on the shaft that is weaker for that reason. In 54 H-D made the shaft solid so much stronger beam strength. Than they followed up with the smooth contact points to allow the shift lever to rotate under heavy pressure rather than transmit the excessive force to the internals. If slipping try roughing up the contact points on the shaft end and in shifter hole before assembly and tightening pinch bolt. Loctite may helpful. Rough up the contact points to help stop rotating. So sand 90° to the rotating direction, not with it, just a bit, #90 grit, just the surfaces.

I see. It seemed odd that I had a splined shaft and the inside of the shift lever was smooth. I will try to put a surface on the smooth face.
Dick, how does the splined setup not allow adjustment? You can't pull a splined lever and rotate it on the shaft?

If youre shifter shaft is splined, it is not correct.

Splined Shaft requires Splined shifter. Round Shaft uses Smooth shifter.

I see. They changed both mating surfaces. That makes more sense to me. I'll put this down on the "Yet another thing wrong with the way this bike was put together" list.
Thanks for the clarification.

Zaemo wrote:I see. It seemed odd that I had a splined shaft and the inside of the shift lever was smooth. I will try to put a surface on the smooth face.
Dick, how does the splined setup not allow adjustment? You can't pull a splined lever and rotate it on the shaft?

yes.
but each engagement point is very different position at toe peg.
the smooth setup makes it real easy to fine tune.

my posts havent been to clear lately. ill try to put more effort into them.