'03 Sportster Transmission issue

[silvercab996]

Hello all, first post on the new board. Anyway '03 XL grinds severly when going from neutral to either 1st or 2nd. Most noticeably, when starting the bike in neutral, hot or cold then pulling in the clutch, which feels perfectly smooth and normal, then moving the shift lever to engage 1st gear there is a terrible amount of grinding going on as to make you reluctant to try to fully depress the lever for full engagement. Once in first gear all is fine, shifts up and down like normal. Same thing happens from neutral to second if the clutch lever is in the engaged position (out) while in neutral, then clutch pulled in and trying to engage 2nd it grinds.

The most obvious things I checked. Oil level is full and clean, Primary chain has about 5/8" free play, 1/8"-1/4" clutch lever free play, clutch engagement device and bearing are in good condition. I even pulled the trans expecting damaged engagement dogs or some visual signs of damage but everything looks clean and great. The oil was clean too without and metal. Visually the pawl assembly and all springs look good, I haven't disassembled the forks from the cam drum yet but so far everything looks good.

This is baffeling to say the least. I have not removed the clutch plates from the basket yet to check them out. Again it feels a little like you are trying to engage first gear while the clutch is not disengaging. But when assembled the disegagement/engagement felt smooth and predictable as far as lever feel.

Any trans experts out there?
TIA

[hogpipes1]

Be glad you don't have a 04 & up or you'd be spilting the cases.my 01 will klunk in 1st if cold ,  or idle to fast ,my trick is lo idle , try to keep the clutch pulled in a little longer to get the gears to slow down a bit. your trans sounds more of a rare breed than normal, so there could be other things like warped clutch disk  causing it to drag, to heavy oil in trans ,i'd be looking at clutch not releasing. just try this adj the cable with no free play + so that it would slip if you got on it ,but main thing is you know you gave it more than enough adj. to release the clutch . if it still doesn't shift right into 1st . then for sure i'd be looking at the clutch assy.  good luck.