Hitchcocks Forum

Hi again. Same '59 Connie with later pushrod clutch. Refitted the gearbox outer cover yesterday, then attempted to fit the neutral finder. With the gearbox in 'proper' neutral, fitting the indicator / neutral pedal assembly results in the indicator pointing in the wrong direction! Depending on which orientation on the square shaft, it points either 30deg too far clockwise or 60deg too far anti-clockwise. As a result, the neutral pedal either fouls the gear change shaft or points upwards! The gearbox works (all 4 plus neutral select properly) and when I took delivery of the bike, the pedal was in the right position. I haven't stripped the selector or gearbox other than removing the outer cover. I feel I'm missing something REally Obvious! Any ideas? Thanks, Stephen

Hi Stephen,
Are you sure you have the selector going the right way, put a shifting spanner on the square shaft , slowly rotate the rear wheel and push down on the shifter moving it in a clockwise direction, once it has clicked all the way down you are in first, then lift the shifter slightly till it selects neutral, then fit the finder

Norm - yes, checked all that and it's fine thanks, just happening at the wrong position....???
Stephen

Hi Stephen, if you didn't strip anything else then it can't go together incorrectly. Was the neutral indicator fitted. I'm wondering if you have the wrong indicator, one from a left shift Albion, they point at a different position to the square shaft and you wouldn't know unless you had both of them in your hand

I had this problem once, I fitted a gear pointer when building up a box and it would not allow the neutral finder to work properly just as Stephen has described. The reason was that I'd used one from an early box (pre-1954, with the gear and kickstart on separate shafts) which has the pointer at a different orientation to the square hole. A rummage in the bits box soon found the right one!
REgards, Mark

Thanks, Norm & Mark. Interesting... my neutral pointer points perpendicular to one of the flats on the square shaft. Is that right or not? But oddly it was all fine when I pulled the neutral indicator off the bike, ie the neutral pedal was sitting snugly on the adjuster eccentric... Stephen (puzzled!)

Just checked on an Interceptor gearbox (identical set up) and the pointer is adjacent to one of the corners of the square hole. REgards, Mark

I just threw out an indicator from a left speed, not sure where I threw it,I got rid of it so it didn't get mixed up with the rest of my gearbox parts. I'll look in the morning

Long story short: it seems the gear indicator I have is from a G or early Bullet. Later ones had the pointer in a different position relative to the square (á la Mark). I need to order the correct indicator from mine host! Thanks for the comments which helped identify the problem!