clutch adjustment 76 shovel

[48pan]

Sometime in the 70's harley came up with a cheap throw out bearing. Mine went south and I was told that all you had to do was put the old style one in with a new push rod. Nothing else to change. Well it fit fine but when I went to feel the play it didn't feel right. Normaly you tighten the nut and screw on the clutch hub plate until you have about 1/8" of play. Well just pushing it in by hand you can feel the clutch arm move as the rod goes in & out.

The problem is that when you push the rod all the way in, the clutch arm still has about 1/2" of free play.
Is there more to updating the old style t/o bearing? There seems to be more play than with old bikes.
Any help would be appreciated.

[easyricer]

On my 76 I have a rocker clutch and tank shifter but the adjustment isn't really much different. loosen everything up. Get a quarter and a dime. Adjust the spring plate to where the quarter is even top of it off of the pressure plate, all the way around. Swing the throw out arm all the way to the starter housing and adjust the screw to where the dime it's between the arm and the housing. Lastly adjust your lever to get 1/8 inch play at the perch. It should be close enough to adjust the rod adjuster screw to where it does not drag too much at idle. I can back my bike up in gear and don't have to blip the throttle to get it out of gear.
You may or may not still have 1/8th inch at the lever when you have it set to where it works right. The ball bearing throw out is indestructible by a little drag, so don't sweat it too much. Keep a close eye on your oil level in the tranny and you should never have a problem with the old style bearing.
EASY

[48pan]

Thanks Easy. My concern is still the amount of free play in the clutch arm with the push rod engaged.
Is there any other changes needed when you change to the old style t/o bearing?
something seems strange

[moosemush]

The older mainshafts were a little shorter. Perhaps the pushrod on the old style bearing is a little shorter as well.

[48pan]

Thanks. I'll check that out tonight

[easyricer]

I don't really know which one is longer. When I installed the kicker off of my other bike I stole the clutch rod and t/o bearing at the same time because I knew that the 76 had the POS Wafer in it. I know that the 65 tranny had a different mainshaft in it than I have now. I dunno...... I need a drink!
EASY

[xlfan]

There is a old style push rod for early style t/o bearing to fit 70 to early 75 BT, which originally had the early style t/o bearing, this push rod measures 14'' as opposed to late style pushrod with a different end shape which measures 14 1/8''. It sounds like you have a pushrod from a 65 to 69 mainshaft, these pushrods measures 13 1/2''.

xlfan

[Dennman]

Another part that should be changed is the fork that pushes on the throw out bearing.The one for the wafer bearing has a clearance prob.w/ the old style bearing.I know this as i changed the fork and now have your prob.It has work all summer but it's one of the things I have to fix this winter.

[48pan]

We'll be seeing soon, it's almost back together again.
That fork might be the problem. It doesn't make sense to use the same fork with such a differant t/o bearing.

[48pan]

All back together and seems to shift fine. I only went around the block. While I had the tranny out, I bypassed the primary chain oiler and am not quite sure I have the oil lines hooked up right.
Someone in the HTT sent me a diagram, but it seems like I have more oil lines than any diagram that I've seen shows.

Anybody got a good oil line diagram?
Thank you.

[48pan]

Thanks Sulley that was the diagram I followed. The only problem is that under the three outletts shown on the oil pump, I have two more below them. One is for the oil pressure gague and the other one I plugged because it tied into what I believed was a vent tube.

Today I ran it again and I'll be dipped in something cause this is the second time I've had that  
( ) blanking tranny out to fix the shifting and it still doesn't want to go into 2nd gear without holding the shifter lever up.
Everything in the tranny looks good. I even had a shop check the alignment on the forks and the rachet lid.
History. It's a FX. Someone changed the shifting to a forward control. (it used to shift out of the primary)
It looks as simple as the foot shifting rod might not be long enough or not at the correct angle to move the lever on the rachet lid back enough.
On my pan the lever on the rachet lid lever points down and the shovel the lever points up.
Any thoughts?
And thanks for the help.

[Older-twin]

Hard to tell without riding it, but two things come to mind based on your posts:  If the thing drops into gear with upward pressure from your foot, does it do this when the rpm's drop down enough for it to want to fall into place by itself?  (Like shifting a car or truck without using the clutch, but rather by adjusting rpm's with the gas pedal while shifting.)  That would indicate that the clutch isn't disengaging enough to slow/stop the transmission to allow smooth gear transitions.  If that happens then you would need to adjust the throw on the clutch rod so it disengages the clutch properly.  If this isn't the case and the clutch works justfine to stop and put it in neutral without a lot of effort, then it sounds like the shifting linkage is getting so sloppy that shifter rods/linkages won't allow enough push/pull movement to have the ratchet arm move the forked gear all the way into place.  My FLT is developing this problem too, because of sloppy linkages and worn out Hiem joints on the shifter rods.  It shows the problem most going into second gear for some reason, but will do it in third at times.  I hope this helps, and good luck.

[48pan]

Thanks Mr. Twin
It's not the clutch and like your it does it in 2nd and sometimes in 3rd. I think the linkage is not letting it travel enough. At that's the next thing I'll be dealing with. Looking at the foot shifter I don't think the angel is right. It's almost like it's pushing it up and not enough back.
We'll see

[48pan]

Looks like I'm gonna have to take the tranny out again. I Still not shifting right.