Motorcycles: Harley Davidson: Sportster 1200 (1990 model)?

[The Oregon Beaver]

We just recently bought this bike and it was having some carb problems so I scheduled it to go in on this coming tuesday (day after labor day). Well, I took the carb apart, cleaned it, and the problems have been FIXED, but then after rideing it for awhile I noticed some shifting problems, inability to get it to accept gears, etc, and NOW IT IS STUCK, AND I M-E-A-N STUCK, IN 2ND GEAR. IT'S A FOUR SPEED, SO I GUESS: If I had to pick a gear for it to be stuck in, second would be that gear, but that's not much consolation. Doesn anyone have any idea what would cause this? Is this going to turn out to be a MAJOR TRANSMISSION PROBLEM? I have decided to just park it and not try to force anything, cause hey, I'm strong enough to break metal with my bare hands, and I know that's what's going to happen if I force the darn thing. When you pull the clutch lever in, it does totally disengage the gear, so that is good, and the friction point is still where it should be, but it just won't move up or down. It all started with a little grinding between gears and just a little "moodiness" with the trasmission .Things got worse in a hurry, and although I fixed the carb problem, this looks like it's going to be MUCH more serious, and since techinically it's my dad's bike, I don't want to tell him HOW serious I think it is until I get some info from you guys. I want to know the best case scenario all the way down to the worst case scenario. Thx in advance for your time and effort, as well as your knowledge and advice. I can tell you anything about a jap bike, but I had no idea how much of a "different animal" the Harley Davidson really is. I love it, don't get me wrong, but people have always complained about how unreliable they are. Huh... Well anyway I appreciate all helpful comments, but please, keep the smart-azz remarks to yourself. Last time I asked a question about it (before I tore the carb down and fixed it), some guy replies "OH YES, IT IS REALLY FAST!" WTF? My question never mentioned speed. Then the next a-hole told me that my question was too long and he couldn't be bothered with it. Anyway that's all, I don't even know where to begin, but it goes into the repair shop tuesday and I'd like to have SOME Idea of what to tell them on what MIGHT be wrong with it.Thx again. -john in Iowa

[Aussie H.D. Rider]

Ahh - the guy with fiddle fingers who gave me the thumbs down.Tell them the truth - you pulled the cover off and it flew apart,then you tried to fix it and made it worst.Am I close to the truth?.....

[vtwin_doc]

The Sportster 4spd trans is a rather complicated transmission, you are definitely best taking it to a shop for repairs. Without going into the trans, I can't tell you for sure what is wrong, but the symptoms you describe sound the the shift shaft inside the trans is either broke or popped out. This was a rather common problem on the 4spd's. The shift shaft has a small arm on the inside with a ball on the end that sits in a socket on the shift mechanism. It was a common problem that the ball popped out of the socket and/or broke. While the trans is out, this would be a perfect time to have the clutches fully inspected. They may seem to be ok, but, it is worth the time to inspect the plates for proper thickness, if they are near the minimum specs, have them replaced with a set of Barnett clutches, it will save the labor time to have to pull the primary back apart, since it will already be aprt, no sense in paying to do the job twice.