Here's the drill - If you don't have a work stand improvise. I clamped the front wheel TIGHTLY in the bench vise. Jack the rear up by placing a jack under the engine. Lift the rear wheel about four inches above the surface. The rear frame section can be flipped forward over the front. The frame plates must be removed as the frame extends into these pieces about a quarter inch prohibiting swinging them over the top. A few obvious odds-n-ends below an the trans are now clear. It is attached to the frame in two places. The forward one is handled by simply removing the two top trans bolts but the bracket will still be in your way. It's very difficult to get to so leave it alone. The rear is right on top of the trans with one through bolt. Pull it out. Now secure the tail of the spine overhead, and remove the rest of the trans to engine bolts. Now loosen the front motor mounts (2, just loosen). Lower the jack under the engine about two inches. Trans will be completely clear and slip out easily with no juggling. E-mail me if I can be of help. - Have a look here -
A few days later...
Well, it's back together a works simply great! It did however work great before I blew it up. The most significant aspect of the whole thing is related to my subjective opinion about having the airbox removed. I have always felt that these bikes were much more pleasing looking with more "stuff" exposed. In addition to that, these four valves sound very different than the EV/Eldo on Uni filters or the V7 Sport on K&Ns. Absolutely marvelous. Great looking, great sound and no apparent seat of the pants performance degradation. More on that later.
Additional info on the disassembly- I have a shop type pnuematic table motorcycle lift (Handy). While this is not essential, it will be important to somehow immobilize the front end to secure the whole bike. Tying it down against a wall or as on a trailer should work. When you jack the bike up under the motor be sure to raise the back wheel at least four or five inches. You will need the space later. The oil lines going to the back of the pan do not need to be removed. There is enough space to swing them around in front of the starter motor after the starter is removed. The rest of the teardown should proceed in a fairly simple and obvious manner.
Reassembly- There two types of clutches available. The old style, that I destroyed, have a piece of tin slightly thicker than dogfood can material with the hub riveted in and the friction material riveted to both sides. In the space between the hub and the pads some of the tin has been cut out to leave what resembles spokes. When I let the clutch out at high speed in first gear it ripped the friction area off of the hub by essentially tearing the spokes. The new type discs are of heavier tin by maybe a factor of two and the disc itself is solid (no spokes). The friction material is bonded (no rivets). While the new clutch is apparently substantially more sound, I'm not sure it's a such a good deal. I wonder what would have broken if I'd had these. The new ones were $66 each (2). Assembly is very straightforward and the reverse of the teardown except of course for the clutch itself. I would say that for all practical purposes it is essential that you have a clutch hub and a twelve milimeter bolt about 75mm in length with a big washer to both compress the clutch springs and align the clutch discs as well as the intermediate plate. Don't start assembly til you have this setup. Place the clutch hub against the pressure plate, run the bolt with washer thru it and thread the bolt into the end of the crankshaft. This will quickly and very easily compress the springs as it pushes the pressure plate back. Slide a clutch disc over it with the hub side to the rear of the bike. Slide the steel intermediate plate into the basket (flywheel) and then the other clutch disc facing the same way. Now place the ring gear and tighten it down evenly. Loosen the bolt and remove the clutch hub tool. The transmission will very simply slide in place. Once the gear box is bolted up you can now jack the motor back up into the frame. The rear most mount will slip into its box below the spine quite easily but the center one that connects to the two top tranny bolts will interfere with the swing up and will need the benefit of a little leverage and all will fit right in. (I made a little space on either end of this bracket with two screwdrivers and Buffy bumped the frame into place. (She was only in the shop five minutes; four for instruction and one in the process.) On my bike one of these two top bolts was 5mm longer than the other. The long one went on the right! If you attempt to tighten it on the left you could split it's boss in the block! Bolt the rest back together as it came apart. I would say that having done it once the whole thing apart and back togather should take about four hours. First time and cleaning everything as I went took twice that. Hope this helps someone. I've skipped what seemed obvious but if it isn't feel free to get in touch.
Mike Curtis
LMCircus@aol.com
