front end on with new correct fork ears....so pretty
threw a shift lever on there to test the gears and nothing. up or down, moving the sprocket. it returned to center, but would not shift. I call Bill Benton, who I bought the motor from (it was a friends of his, higher mileage, pulled to put a new motor in and this one just sat indoors for awhile), and ask if he had any thoughts. he said open it up. so I popped off the tranny cover and this is what I saw
the whole shift linkage was missing! kinda irritated me, but also kinda cracked me up "well THERE's your problem!". so I transplanted it from the other engine now that I have a parts engine
I remember from last time how difficult it was to get that last spring thats flush against the crankcase on there. I am fumbling with it for a good 15 minutes and my brother walks in, sits down and takes the spring and tab and gently sets it perfectly in place on his first try. I just about knocked him out for being a twit
he held it in place while I put all the assembly on that long bolt and got it finished up, shifting just fine. don't mind the drum bolt....I errr....thought I should take it off and realized it wasn't coming off by natural means, so before I got medieval on it with cutting tools and drill I had some sense talked into me about LEAVING IT ALONE. funny I just read through edwardmorris's thread and he did NOT leave it alone and had it snap. glad I walked away from it. now it looks mangled but it is solid as a rock.
that brings up the next issue I faced. I was getting in gears but was able to spin the final shaft/sprocket by hand in all gears. that doesn't seem right from what I remember. called Bill again and he suggested making sure the clutch adjustment was set fine with the locknut etc. did that and nothing. he said to pop the cover, so I did. nothing looked out of the ordinary. I spent very little time behind the clutch cover the first time so I am not familiar with it. I popped the clutch cover on the original engine. looked the same. I could spin the whole clutch basket on the new engine though and not on the first engine....hmmm....then it hit me. I took ONE look closer and realized there were no %@#!ing clutch plates in the new engine! wow.
for those wondering there ARE pistons in the engine I promise. so it was time to do something new, take out the old clutch and put it in the new engine. thats exactly what I did. I marked the lifter plate and the clutch housing so it went back together the same way. while it was apart my brother and I spent 10 minutes staring at the lifter plate and concluded there is no proper orientation. that puppy is perfectly symmetrical. I think the problem is when the plates dont line up perfectly inside the hub and create a tiny gap which translates back to the spring putting extra pressure and snapping a corner. I tapped on the bolts as I tightened and just near the end I received a huge smack and the plates lined themselves up. no cracks, no sweat. cover went back on and the sprocket cannot be turned by hand. success I believe.
