The story of the gearbox overhaul is a bit like the story of the carburetor fix: a multiple part series full of mysteries, annoyance, tears and fears but with a joyful ending! No doubt!
Have no clue what I’m talking about? You can check the main page for my Indian Scout adventure to get clarity!
So let’s get to the gearbox, shall we?
Wait! The transmission restoration is now completely done! You can check it out in the Transmission overhaul – part 2 article. 👏
How it started
A couple months back, when we dismantled the clutch, I wanted to have a look inside the gearbox. My dad didn’t want to touch anything, as he had never taken it appart, but was ok to ‘have a look’.
So we pulled the back clutch cover (instruction below!) and tada… the inside of the gearbox appeared. I had no clue what I was looking at, actually but was still happy! But… just before putting everything back together, I saw a washer at the bottom of the gearbox. Damn! Not a good thing.
Well, it turned out my dad had heard it fall when we pulled the clutch and was relieved we found it. OK! But how do we know where it comes from?!
We couldn’t tell at first. So we saved it and put everything back together as planned.
Fast forward a couple months later… As you may have seen in “My Indian is in a 1000 pieces“, well, the bike is in 1000 pieces! It was a very realistic title!
Good thing it’s all appart, we were able to go back into the gearbox and put the washer at its place (by then, we had a good idea of its location, thanks to the manuel)!
Note: because of the above, some of the below pictures were taken when the transmission case was still attached to the engine and the bike. Some were taken later when the gearbox was loose! In between we had changed the drive sprocket.
Taking the gear box appart
To access the gearbox, you have to first remove the front cover of the clutch. Easy enough. If you want to know more, you can check the article titled Repairing the clutch of an Indian Scout!
Once all the disk are removed, you’ll get access to the 5 bolts which hold the back cover to the gearbox. There is a 6th bolt to unscrew at the front.
Then, on the other side, you need to remove the pinion clutch & the pinion gear. Not sure you have to remove the drive sprocket but we did. One piece of advise: Do it before the transmission case is in your hands! We struggled to pull it out!
Then gently pull on the clutch back cover. You probably need to tap a little, from the right, on the main shaft as well. Be careful to not loose the thrust washer like we did!
Once the shaft is removed, the gear slider is almost free. It tried and tried every position and angles to remove it and couldn’t. It got even more frustrating when my brother came and removed it in 3 and a 1/2 second! I added the 1/2 second is to make me feel better but it barely works!
From the outside you can already remove the shifter fork ball lock. Just unscrew. Don’t loose the ball!
The difficult part for us, was to remove the shifter fork shaft. There is a little hole on the top right side of the transmission case. You need to insert a thin tube and tap the shaft out. Ours had not moved for 80 years. It took some patience!
The shifter fork and bell crank (? not sure about the name) came out easily.
Next we just needed to remove the counter shaft which came out fairly easily. Again by tapping gently from the right to the left. Don’t loose the little key and ring (3rd picture below).
And the 3 gears came out easily just by sliding them. And I was happy for a while!!
Next steps
My happiness was partially short lived. I was happy we managed, but when we noticed the damages… not so happy!
As you can maybe tell on the pictures, there are major damages to the gears. To the 3 countershaft gear cluster and to the sliding gear part. My brother is going to repair those. I’m a bit worried it might not be as strong as new parts. We’ll see.
My dad has an extra countershaft gear cluster which is in much better shape but it’s missing one bushing so I’m on the hunt for that!
Apart from that, which is major, it’s just cleaning!
Oh and putting it all back together! That will be part 2!
If you want to understand how it all goes together, you can check out Jerry Greer’s website and his amazing diagrams.
Want to help?
Do you want to help me rebuilt my dad’s bike? Here are 10 ways you can do so. Most are free and will take just a few seconds! You want to see me going on a road trip with this bike, don’t you?! Go ahead then, every penny will help!
You can pin this as well!
