2004 transmission problem

[calif phil]

I have a chance to buy a wrecked 2004 1200 custom. The bike only has 1st gear and neutral, Sometimes it feels like you can shift into 2nd but the bike stays in neutral. Since there is no trap door anymore would there be anyway to fix this thing without a complete teardown of the motor? If I were to remove the clutch basket can the shift forks be removed or is there any kind of access to the trans shifter parts? 

[PC_Hater]

Everything I have read implies that you get to split the cases.
While that is a bit tedious do bear in mind that the old Sportsters were one of the very few bikes worldwide that you could strip just the transmission. You had to split the cases on old Brit bikes to get at the gears.
And the plus side is - while the cases are split you can have them bored for the Axtell 1450 conversion...