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Anyone still looking? This came up on the Facebook Drifters Group.

Beside the battery box is a set a fuses - check those. I blew a 15A this spring for some reason when I replaced my battery.

Thanks much folks!

Hi all hope you had a great holiday and Happy New Year!

My Bike has developed some issues and I really want some expert opinions before I dive in to fix them.

My ride is a 2002 Drifter 1500 FI shaft drive. 33,000 miles. I have paperwork from before I bought saying the clutch was rebuilt at 25,000. Under hard throttle it will 'slip' and even pops into neutral on its own if I really hit The trottle hard. I'm thinking I will rebuild the clutch over the winter using Mean Streak springs. Question is - shouldn't a rebuild last longer than 8,000 miles?

TIA for any advice or similar experiences.

I asked on the FB group and got the following responses:

"Popping out of gear in 2nd is the first sign of worn gear dogs. When this begins folks start stomping it back into gear and end up bending the shift forks. Kawasaki has discontinued the parts needed to fix this. And even if you went with used components splitting the case and doing the repair you are looking at $2000 or more. As for the clutch it probably needed a clutch diaphragm spring and the shop replaced the frictions instead of what the real problem was. There are documented 1500s with over 200,00 miles on them with the factory clutch after upgrading the spring and adding Judge Washers. Your best bet is to find a good used engine and just swap it out."

Someone else said:

"You may have two different problems - the slip is most likely clutch related. Popping into or out of gear usually is shift fork or/and gears worn."

Clearly splitting cases or swapping engines is a pretty big job so if anyone can offer any insight I would surely appreciate it.
Cheers, Tim

A quick thing you should also try is to open the clutch reservoir on the handlebars and gently pull the clutch lever. There is a really tiny hole for the fluid return that gets clogged with crud.
Guitar string, one bristle from a wire brush, paperclip all work to ream it out. It should shoot when you pull the lever - if not it's clogged.
I just did mine for the second time - huge improvement.

We are privileged to have such wisdom on this site.

No unscrew the cover (4 screws).
The little hole is how the fluid gets back to the reservoir. With the cover off, gently pull the clutch. Fluid should spray. If it doesn't you need to clean out that hole.

There is a tiny orifice in the reservoir - if you have a wire brush cut off one bristle, hold it with needle nose pliers and ream the hole. That fixed my problem

Bumping this thread because someone was asking if it's possible to put a later edition engine into an older Drifter frame. Thumbs Up to OR Seedman for proving it can be done!

Thanks again for all your hard work Chief!

I bought my 2002 Drifter 1500 because of this forum - many good folks with huge knowledge.
Can I also add that 4 years later I still sit in my garage and look at it? What an awesome bike both how it looks and how it rides!

Thanks guys. Mine came with a batwing and although I'm sure it would make a huge difference I just don't like the look. Same deal with the two up seat I guess so my wife stays home... 
I'm going to try a couple of different windshields to see if they fit and if they will work.
For those that did go for a windshield: how high does the plexi have to be to direct airflow over your head when you ride on the highway? That is my biggest problem - over 70mph my head just gets blasted. I'm fairly tall at 6'2" so I'm thinking I will need a tall windshield too.
Cheers 

Such a cool story! 

Did you get this fixed? I went on a first ride of the year and I had the same problem - would not start and strong smell of petrol. I'm sure my battery was weak as that seems to be the most common problem but I'm curious if you had a different problem that you fixed. Cheers 

Make sure you are signed in. In the upper nav bar just under the VDR Logo,  Gallery is between Calendar and Classifieds. Hover over the button for options.

Got it thanks! I've been on this forum for how many years and never knew that was there.
I guess I was thinking it would be cool to have a page on the main board where people could talk about their bike; maybe how long they'd had it, what mods they did and some photos of the journey. 

Hi Chief I don't see the Gallery anywhere.
When I click on 'Pictures of Anything' I see a sticky on top that you made announcing the Gallery but it only has a dead link.
Cheers, Tim 

I would love to see photos of everyone's bikes!
I have not tried to upload any photos to the new site yet but having an easy way to do that would be great. Keep up the good work gents!

Edit: saw this:
https://www.vulcandrifterriders.com/forum/index.php/topic,54014.0.html

Lots of great improvements to the site! I know how much work that can be so hats off to you Good Sir!  👍 

Welcome! I'm in west Kelowna. Let me know when you are headed to this area and we can ride together

Wow looks brand new! Congrats

Looks good! I managed to find ONE tank badge - I think I'll be looking for it's twin for a while! 

Much appreciated Chief! 

I looked but could not find them - can anyone please provide part numbers for throttle cables? Mine is a 2002 1500. Thanks!

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/engine-on-1948-indian-chief-fires-up-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade-ready-for-the-road-170713.html

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1948-indian-chief-6/

I got a set of Metzeler ME888 Ultra Marathon in the spring. To be fair any tires would be an improvement over the old ones as they were really trashed but I am very impressed with these. They give me a lot of confidence in the turns.