slipping out of 2nd and 3rd into neutral

Hoping this is the problem i have same thing happening to my 2008 classic with 34000 miles.
jumping out of gear hard finding neutral but ok if holding pressure on gear lever. With a bit of luck its the detent spring.Hopefully gonna get started this sat it is the only day i have at the moment working six day week plus not ever doing a job like this before but have watched radiator and clutch removal video [1000 times] have pdf of detent spring downloaded and most importantly you guys on this forum feeling confident

Boog said:

Hello Jwjhoover and welcome from Virginia. Love your Canadian accent in that tear down video, reminds me of mates a little further south of Canada though...

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Haha, Hello Virginia. I love the Aussie video too. That's just a video that I found that helped me out in this fix. I'm hoping I can make it easier for someone else with the same issue. Cheers!

mr hunt said:

Yep she came out nice and easy - been waiting 6 weeks for new bolts to be delivered

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I feel for you man, I know that pain all too well.

Jwjhoover said:

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I finally got her all put back together, and took her out for a couple shake-out rides. The first ride I noticed the clutch slipping, however after some cable adjustments that stopped. When I'm moving, shifting is somewhat smooth, but now after about 40 Km, when stopped it's difficult, and finding neutral difficult. The only time I am hitting neutral is shifting down. Does anyone have thoughts on what might be going on? Could it be that I still need to adjust the clutch cable?

Clutch needs adjustment to specification.

I don't know any other clutch spec from the manual other than 2-3 mm of play in the clutch lever.

Jwjhoover said:

I don't know any other clutch spec from the manual other than 2-3 mm of play in the clutch lever.

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Free-play is the important adjustment. Other then that the trans and clutch has been known to operate a little different depending on the oil used. By this I mean things just feel smoother like the lubricity is much better.

For instance on this site I have found people who have noticed the box and clutch work better with mobile 1 verses Castrol. I'm not selling oil just mentioning what if seen on the sites. Oh and I only use mobile 1 in my truck and have never used Castrol in my bike.

Now about the clutch if it has been adjusted wrong for a while or repeatedly revved while the clutch is pulled in. Then you could have burnt the ends of the lifter shaft. This shortens the amount the lifter piece can be raised. If this is the case no amount of adjustment will help. And since yours is a 08 and you had it apart I'm not sure if you inspected the lifter shaft and lifter piece for wear and to make sure you have the newer style lifter piece.
Below you can see the difference. The 08 models had the little one on the right.


Below is a picture of a good lifter shaft verses a really burnt one. You can clearly see it will not lift the lifter piece enough to freely open the clutch pack. Thus putting a drag amd rotation on things making it hard to find gears and neutral.


Hope this helps

Wondering if this is something that will always eventually happen even with upgrade kits