Shovelhead 4 Speed Saga: Going Up Part 3

Found my 4th gear bearing thrust washer so we should be good to go again.

This is the stack up that goes into the case. L to R: Maindrive(4th) Gear(9), thrust washer(15), rollers(3), Ray's special spacer(10), key(19), cork seal(24), and main seal(23).


Super sticky high temp grease in the bearing journal.


Make about a smiley face with some of the rollers.


Add the pesky thrust washer to fourth gear.


See how it disappears and you don't know it's there.


Stab the gear and thrust washer through the case.


Don't knock out the smiley face rollers.


Work the rest of the rollers intro the races.


All full of rollers.


Ray's special spacer installation instructions.


Electrical tape on the threads.


Grease.


Spacer. Man that's tight.


I think this is pretty much seated.


We temporarily added the drive sprocket and nut. REMEMBER LEFT HANDED THREADS. This will help insure the spacer is seated and hold things together while we stick the mainshaft assembly. It will also let us rotate the mainshaft more easily as needed while installing everything else.

The fourth gear feels really nice in place.


Now to prep the parts for the mainshaft assembly installation into the case



Mainshaft assembly(6,7, 1, 8, 10, 5),  mainshaft 3rd gear(11), 3rd gear washer(14), retaining ring(13), and mainshaft shift clutch(15).


One key point with mainshaft shift clutch. It has a right and wrong way to be installed. They are marked "HIGH", "4TH", or otherwise lettered on one side only. This side you face toward fourth gear that is installed in the case. If you put it in backwards the bike will not stay in 4th gear.


Stack the third gear with it's washer and retaining ring.


Oil the mainshaft assembly.


Oil the journal in the case.


Almost ready.


Stick the mainshaft through the case and into the third gear, washer, and ring.


Slide the shift clutch onto the mainshaft.



Push the mainshaft on through fourth gear on out of the case.




The washer and ring need to go all the way onto the mainshaft.


The washer has teeth so it needs to be aligned with splines to slide all the way down to the gear.


The retaining ring is the next trick.


Work in on to the shaft a little at time turning and working around the shaft.


Once the ring is good and started then the shift fork and can go onto the splines and be used to push the ring most of the way to the groove in the shaft.




The bearing housing is a tight fit into the case. Tap, tap, tap.


WHACK, WHACK, WHACK.


Bearing seated.


Now check the retaining ring. It's not all the way into the groove. Push it in with your finger.


Good to go.


Mainshaft is in.


Retaining plate(9), oil deflector(3), and screws.


Counter sinks out and oil deflector goes here.


They go into the case like this.


Clean and loctite the screws.


Crisscross tighten.


Back to the countershaft.


This is 10, 11, 15, 8, 13, 14, 9, 12, 7 stacked up. The snap rings(19) are next.


Find the flat side of the snap ring. That will go toward the outside of the transmission and give the bearing thrust washer a nice place to sit.


Snap ring down the hole.


Push it until it finds its home.




Flip the stack and repeat.




The next plan. Washer/shim(16) will go on in the case. Thrust washers(18) go on each snap ring. Rollers go into each washer. The medium size thrust washer(17) goes on the skinny end (left end bike orientation.)


Start with skinny end thrust washer.


Plenty of stinky grease.


Work in 22 rollers.


Piece of cake.


Add outer thrust washer.


A little grease will stick that in place, too.


Flip and put the other small thrust washer in.


Again 22 roller go in.


No cover for this end until you get it into the case.


Countershaft(5) gets an o-ring(3).


Grease both holes.


Oil the shaft.


Check fit the shaft.




The countershaft stack goes in like this.


Mechanic's wire seems to be the way to raise and lower the stack as we work the countershaft through the stack.




Countershaft goes in.


Last thrust washer goes in.


It's a trick to line up the thrust washer.




It was about now the we realized we needed 0.008 to 0.010 inch of clearance with the last thrust washer and we have none.  Back to the independent Harley shop to set of washer in a different thickness. Stopped for parts again.