Champion Reverse gear grinding

[Southpaw]

Hello all,

I had a Champion reverse gear added to my Harley Davidson Roadking trike conversion. When my trike got delivered the guy said that it's better to have my bike in first gear, when sliding the reverse gear into reverse. Then put my bike in neutral when I back up. Otherwise it will grind. I've tried it both ways, his way, and also my way, having my bike in neutral (which the Champion company suggests), and I found that it does grind sometimes when the bike is in neutral, as opposed to being in first gear. (you can hear it grinding), not a good sound.

So lately I've been putting the bike in first gear when sliding the lever to reverse, then putting the bike in neutral when I back up. Then it doesn't grind. We had a service guy check out my trike and he said there was metal chips in my oil, probably from the grinding. Has anyone else with a manual Champion reverse had this problem??

[Lee H. Mann]

Hello all,
I had a Champion reverse gear added to my Harley Davidson Roadking trike conversion. When my trike got delivered the guy said that it's better to have my bike in first gear, when sliding the reverse gear into reverse. Then put my bike in neutral when I back up. Otherwise it will grind. I've tried it both ways, his way, and also my way, having my bike in neutral (which the Champion company suggests), and I found that it does grind sometimes when the bike is in neutral, as opposed to being in first gear. (you can hear it grinding), not a good sound. So lately I've been putting the bike in first gear when sliding the lever to reverse, then putting the bike in neutral when I back up. Then it doesn't grind. We had a service guy check out my trike and he said there was metal chips in my oil, probably from the grinding. Has anyone else with a manual Champion reverse had this problem??

The directions from Champion tell you to do it the very same way that you have been doing lately.

[Mr.Wizard]

Yes.. mine was the same way. Put it in first then shift reverse lever into place then drop tranny in neutral before backing up.

No grind that way.



.

[Gorilla]

I to also now do it the tran in 1st then put it in reverse then shift to neutral then back up. I was doing it the other way and sheared off the safety pins twice. No problems the first way.

[msocko3]

The reason you put it into 1st gear is to stop the trans from spinning, most of the time the clutch plates on the Harley's will stick together. The sticking is what normally causes the lurch when you try and start the engine with the clutch pulled in and the transmission in gear, this happens more often after the bike or trike has sat over night.

[Rick Kay]

I try to remember to use first gear, then neutral. Sometimes its only after the "crunch" that I recall the right way to do it. DOH!

I was not aware of filings in the tranny from the reverse gear. I'll be changing my tranny fluid pronto!