Belt Drive's & Starter Gears

[Spuco]

Hi,
I recently installed a new 3.5" open belt on a fresh build.  This was a ultima 127" drive train comb.  Mid USA supplied everything needed.  The bike took me a little over yr to finish.  Everything went extremely smooth, minor shimming but nothing crazy.  Was already to turn her over for the first time and starter gear would not hook up to clutch basket.  Carefully reviewed all my steps according to there instructions. Still no luck.  Then it hooked! and jammed itself into the clutch basket. I had to remove outer cover to free her up and again no luck (No Hook-up). when taking a closer look, it seems that the starter gear is set lower then the basket.  However there is no adjustment that I no off or that no one will tell me about to rectify this problem..  Does any body out there have a sollution for this problem.

Spuco

[CraigArizona85248]

Is it possible you have the wrong size gear on your starter jack shaft?  Does this belt drive have an odd size ring gear that requires a special jack shaft gear?

-Craig

[lasmittys1]

  I have found that a lot of aftermarket clutch hubs are made for H-D main trans shafts. The H-D main shafts are cut the size of the spline and enlarge after the splined part of the shaft, aftermarket shafts are straight cut. The clutch hub may need to be pressed apart and the hub part put into a lathe to cut the backside of the hole larger. The clutch hub should bottom out on the face of the shaft so the nut holds the basket with the steel washer in the clutch to the end of the shaft. Enlarge the hole only .001 or .002 than the shaft. The depth of the cut can change, I cut to the splines, but don't cut the splines out. Three signs: you had to shim the starter shaft bearing support plate, starter gear doesn't engage, you need to use a puller to get the clutch off.

[Spuco]

I would like to thank everyone for there input.  I switched to a 3pc Starter gear by Spike and everything works fine.  The local shops were telling me of a possible problem with the transmission, Motor plate and a million and one other possibility's. The one pc set up just would not work right ,but the three pc works great, it was designed for a BLD 3" and I lucked out because it works on my 3.5" Ultima.  Thanks again for the input

[stroker800]

     I had the same issue few years back with the 3"open BDL kit,,the jackshaht wouldn't disengage..I had then inspected work and noticed the spline for the jackshaft itself was not centered on the gear,,,basically it was cammed when rotated.I hand filed the starter gear and ring gear,,,Then had to ream out the bronze bushing in the reciever on the outer part of plate...BDL has a poor customer service and wouldn't return and calls or emails,,this is not the 1st time I've had issues with there parts.  Hope this helps out .
Dave