| Author | Message | ||
     Raymondt |
I bought a 04 XB12S leftover with a race kit I have about 3500 miles on it and all service work has been done by High Country HD in Fredrick Colorado. It has the SYN3 in it. Anyway I made it to the first stop light in town, I down shifted and the bikes shifter over traveled down beyond the lowest point it would normally hit way down and stuck in second gear down there somewhere  . I limped it home and took it straight to the dealer. Where they proceeded to tell me because of Sturgis that they would not look at it until the 13th. That was last Sunday. Anyway has anyone had this problem. What should I push them to look at or replace? Do I need to worry about the reliability of the bike in the future? I absolutely love the bike but this is my first Harley and all of the reasons that I have not bought one up to this point are coming back. Possibly I should have kept the V-Max as a spare! it had 35,000 with no issues! I hope this is a fluke and that Stephanelli didn't •••• up the design. I see they trashed the whole works for 2006!! Man this sucks! The only other issue I have had is the cool coating is peeling off my front wheel which I have asked them to replace. I need some positive encouragement guys!! and any input that could help me out. No I dont stand on the lever or anything. I hope the warentee covers the whole mess and the dealer is competent in this repair. Thanks for listening Ray | ||
| M1combat |
I thinkk that as long as the service guys can fix it properly you should be good. I've heard of this happening once before but only once and I don't remember who it was. | ||
| Odinbueller |
Hang in there, I know it pains everyone to be without their beloved. We are at the busy season, and it may take some time to get all the repairs done ahead of yours. Being in the service department, I see this every day. As far as the quality of your bike, rest assured, you are on top of one of the most reliable motorcycles ever produced, period. It is documented that the XB line has had the fewest and least costly warranty repairs of any other manufacturer, EVER! That speaks volumes about the R&D that went into this design. Look at it this way, Buell originally took the Sportster motor from Harley-Davidson & punched it up. Buell then redesigned that to the XB motor, and Harley-Davidson then re-designed the Sportster around it! Be patient, you unfortunately had a failure at the same time as a lot of other people, and at a time when parts are being used for a new model launch. Use that free time to post on the BadWeb! | ||
| Saintly |
My 03 9R has a problem similar to that, It began with the gearbox popping out of 1st under hard acceleration. Eventually first gear became unattainable, neutral is now the lowest position that can be had. If I push very firmly downward on the shifter from neutral it sometimes will(very stifly) go into what feels like 1st but when the clutch is let out only grinding/stripping sounds can be heard and no movement. At that point the shifter remains stuck in a position much lower than where 1st once resided. I can shut off the engine and rock the bike back & forth while pulling real hard upward on the shifter and she will usually pop free. I just got used to taking off in 2nd and then the rest of the gears are fine. I rode it for a couple hundred miles like that until my belt snapped again and left me stuck far from home. It's been down for a while now, & I'm out of warranty now. This winter I'll split my engine cases & re-do the gearbox, but for now I'm trying to finish up a chain drive conversion so that can get a few more rides out of it this season. | ||
| M1combat |
Just pull the primary cover off and take a look in there... I'm thinking the problem might be sitting right there in front of you and probably not as expensive to fix as you might think. | ||
| Bruceclay |
should'nt be that hard to get the 'tranny out anyway. My sportster broke a shifter fork and I had it in my hand in less that 2 hours. | ||
| Njbuell |
I am a technician at a local Harley/Buell dealer and I just finished up an 04 XB12R at work a couple weeks ago. I believe it belonged to LoneXB. Same problem. Turned out it was the shifter drum. It was very soft aluminum and was mashed between 1st and 2nd. Unfortunately, its a big job requiring engine removal and case splitting. The XB doesn't have the trap door like the sportsters did up until 04. Hope this helps. Phil | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Gee sounds just like when mine was stuck in 4th... the actual lever that moves the shifter drum had been forced past the drum pin, unhooked the spring, shifted the drum enough to slip the lever back to the correct position, and haven't had a problem since. It did require the removal of the clutch basket and stater, but that was because I was replacing the clutch at the same time and had to do it without the handy clutch tool. That lever and drum are located behind the clutch basket, slightly visible with the clutch in place. | ||
| Lonexb |
Phil, you are correct sir. (and buy the way...thank you) brian (lonexb) | ||
| Raymondt |
Well Guys thanks for the input. I will keep you informed on the warrentee repair. I spoke with a tech. today and he assured me he had it fixed without splitting the cases already! I will believe it when I see it but he says the linkage was hung up on the derby cover. I doubt that, but I have seen wierd stuff before. They said they would not warrentee the coating peeling off my front wheel, hell I haven't even changed the original tire out yet arrgggh. Anyway it sounds like good news but may be to good to be true. It sure was jammed. I am really supprised that anything in the linkage could do that without it being obvious to look at but we will see. Thanks again for the kind words. I hope my fragile aluminum shifter drum is not the culprit. Ray | ||
| Raymondt |
Thanks for the help. The issue was the adjustment of the shifting linkage. When they set-up the bike for me they moved the position of the shift lever wholy with the use of the threaded rods. They should have pulled the linkage arm off of the splined shaft and moved it over one tooth then used the rods for the fine tune. The problem was that the boss in the case where a Sportster would normally have a mount which is just plugged on the Buell hit the back side of the linkage and the linkage arm actually popped past this and jammed up the whole mechanism. The fix was just to turn the adjustment nut so that the flat was toward the case instead of the peak of the hex. I may file it a little in that area to keep it from ever happening again. I am so relieved that it was no big deal. Sorry to have doubted you Eric and Stephanelli. |
