2005 sportster 883 stopped at light,bike in 1st gear, now will not come out of gear and have play in shift lever

Sounds like you have a broken shifter pawl. It's behind the clutch assembly in the primary cover. You'll have to take the outer primary cover off, remove the engine sprocket and clutch assembly. The shifter mechanism is behind the clutch assembly. I would suggest the purchase of a service manual if you plan on fixing the bike yourself. In this particular case, the pictures in the book are worth a thousand words. It will show you how to adjust the shifter pawl with a simple picture where it would take me four pages to describe how to do it and we still may not get it right. Look at it this way, if you fix the bike yourself, the money you save by using the book will more than pay for the book and the next time you use it, it's free. At today's labor prices, it don't take long. Thirty minutes to an hour labor will pay for the book.

Good Luck
Steve

This could be caused by a couple of things. One is that usually when you first start the ride for the day, the oil in the transmission is cold and thick. This makes the gears on the mainshaft and the countershaft turn with those shafts. When you try to shift into gear, the drive dog is not turning and it's trying to shift into a gear that is turning and doesn't want to stop due to the thick oil. You can avoid this by pulling the clutch in and holding it while the bike warms up.

The other problem could be that the clutch needs to be adjusted or you've go too much oil in the primary. Adjust the clutch as the manual says to adjust it. Make sure you don't have too much oil in the primary. If the oil level is too high, oil gets between the clutch drive plates when the clutch is disengaged. Then, the oil between the plates acts like the transmission fluid in the torque converter of an automatic transmission.

Loosen the clutch cable where it goes into the primary cover so that the maximum possible amount of slack is achieved. Remove the cover from the clutch, remove the spring, and the locknut. Turn the adjuster screw counterclockwise until it stops. Turn it back clockwise 1/4 turn. Insert the locknut, the spring and the plate. Screw the cable adjuster out until you have just a little freeplay. Work the clutch lever a couple of times and readjust the cable so that you've got 1/16" to 1/8" freeplay at the lever.

Good Luck
Steve

hi, if when you start your bike you press the gear lever down to go to 1st from neutral and then pull it back up to go to 2nd,3rd,4th and 5th then the only way to get back into first gear is to press the gear lever down 4 times to get it back into 1st gear their is no quicker way to do this you have to work your way back down the gears.

if your coming to a stop quick then just pull the clutch in and keep pushing the lever down until it dont push down any further it will only go down 1 gear at a time so you will need to push it down 4 times but you dont need to count you can just keep pressing it down the gears until it dont go down any more then you know this is first, you need to keep the clutch in when doing this.

how ever if your slowing down is more gradual then what you can do is go from 5th down to 4th then let engine slow the bike down then when the revs drop down change down to 3rd and so on until you get ot 1st gear.

if your coming to a stop quick say at lights or junction then if the bike is in 5th gear then you can change down the gears once the bike has stopped just hold the clutch in when you stop and keep tapping the gear lever down until you feel that its not going down any more gears this way you know its in 1st without having to cound down the gears, their id no quicker way of going down the gears to get to 1st.

i hope i have read your question right and gave you the answer you was looking for if i got the question wrong then please explain then i can assist you further ok

There could be several problems here. One problem could be the way you're shifting the gears. I've been riding for over 40 years and I still miss a gear every now and then due to sloppy shifiting.

If you don't think this might be the problem, you may want to check your clutch adjustment to make sure the clutch is disengaging. The easy way to tell this is to put the transmission in low gear, the start the bike with the lever held in. Does the bike lurch forward or have a strong tendency to "pull" the bike with the clutch completely pulled? If so, adjust the clutch mechanism.

Next, your shifter pawl may be getting ready to give up the ghost. These year model Sporty's are notorious for shifter pawl carrier failure. They are not difficult to replace for someone with a good basic mechanical ability.

hi,i dont know a lot about this particular bike,but,as with any high revving sports bike you will need to keep the revs up before changing gear,an 883 sportster has a lot more torque than your bike and you can "short shift "them and let the torque do the work,however on a cbr i think you will need more rpm before you shift as they dont have the torque of your old harley,a friend of mine has an r6 yamaha,that thing revs out to nearly 17000 rpm he doesnt change untill about 9 or 10000 rpm,from memory your bike should be capable of nearly 60mph in first gear..hope this helps...cheers

There is a spring inside the Primary that pulls the shifter back to the neutral position....it is broken......common problem with the Sportster.

it is not uncommon with a lot of bikes, but i would adjust the clutch first and it should stop the drag. adjuster is at bottom of cable on crankcase

You probably have to clean your clutch plates and put in new sportster gear oil.

Big Twins clunk too, especially into 1st with a cold motor, even if you free the clutch off first. When I remember, I snick it into gear, pull in the clutch and roll it back and forward to free off the plates. And it still clunks. Sometimes, you will slip from neutral into 1st, almost with no effort, and no clunk and so smooth you don't believe it's engaged (but it is). Weird. I have smooth changes from 4th to 5th and back again, sometimes from 3rd to 4th, but 3rd to second and second to 1st are always a BIG clunk, even if you give it some stick to try and match the revs before changing down. I now go from second to neutral and then into 1st, which is not a lot of fun when you are negotiating a hairpin on Glenquaich at the time... A tighter primary chain seems to reduce the clunk, and there are those who say that auto primary adjusters/tensioners (does a Sporty have one of them?) reduce the clunk. Some disagree... Assume you find it's much better when it's hot..