Bad day at gearbox

[Worty]

Just to remind you all why the ^%$*& we love our bikes so much:

Spent most of Friday trying to get the clutch lifting squarely on the GF A10, what a %^&%.  The new springs I bought had a particularly sharp edge on them and did a great job of stopping the new nuts turning anti clockwise as I was trying to adjust them.  At this point, I'd already spent a considerable time fine adjusting the primary and final drive chains, getting the rear wheel correctly aligned in the meantime. 

Come Saturday, I was to finish clutch adjustment and get on the road.  I chose to remove the locking nut from the adjuster on the kickstart side and dropped it straight into the *&^%$ing gearbox.  Had to remove the gearbox cover draining it at the same time.  Once recovered, I put the cover back on not realising that a couple of clutch plates had dropped out of the clutch basket because I'd just put the nuts on the first threads. Took me a while to realise that the kickstart wouldn't turn the engine over because of this.

Now I have *&^%ing Hermatite gasket all over my shiny cases.  Feeling very ^&*%ed off, although I adjusted the clutch with the least run out I could muster with no dial gauge and it actually all works quite well.  Still getting a bit of a crunch through first but at least finding neutral is better.

Still, apart from this and losing my nice shiny battery strap somewhere down the lanes of West Yorkshire, and having more electrical problems, all seems to be well.

Arrrrrggghhhhh

[muskrat]

We all have days like that wortluck. But all is forgotten once out on the road with a grin from ear to ear.
Cheers

[Worty]

Cheers muskrat.  Turns out that I sorted the clutch pretty well (by sight rather than dial gauge), smooth changes and finding neutral at standstill.  Still a bit of a clunk into first, and the odd clatter of gears when one doesn't go in well, but miles better than it was.  Also, sealing the gearbox up with some 40 year old Red Hermetite stopped the leak!

Just need to sort the bloody electrics (bad earth I reckon), and I'll be howling down the road again - like I was today, with that grin!

By the way, how do you get smileys into posts - they don't seem to be working for me grrrrr.

[Scott and Jay]

HI Wortluck,

I dropped the clutch arm adjusting nut and washer into my gearbox too. But I fished them out with one of those torches, with an extendable magnet "on a stick". This comes out of the middle of the lens.

[Rocket Racer]

yes some days you just need to walk away.
Reminds me of the time when I was doing some top end work on my rocket 3, I was fairly sure I'd dropped a barrel base washer into the motor and couldn't reach it with a magnet or wire... so attached is what I did 
yes I got it back. What a palaver, don't want to do that again in a hurry

[BSA_54A10]

If you can do that to an A 75 I don't want to bump into you angry in a dark lane 

[Worty]

Couldn't get a hold on it with my flexy magnet thing as it had worked its way into the most inaccessible place under the kickstart spring.  There was a brief time when RocketRacer's sentiments nearly overtook me but had to step away from the lump hammer!

By the way, some fella posted on clutch adjustment which worked really well for me.  Screw the springs in roughly half way (mine are pretty meaty springs), adjust on the gearbox arm so pressure is JUST off the pushrod, then make sure the lever has about 1/8"-ish free play.  Check for run out by zip wiring the clutch lever to the bars and turning over engine with plugs out - visual was fine for me although dial gauge would be better.  If clutch slips, turn in nuts 1/4 at a time (so you don't have to undo them against the stops later).  Clutch is now the best its ever been.

Finally, re electrical problems, could someone remind me where the additional headlamp earth wire goes from to.  I've got an earth on the rear light but not the front.  Memory tells me it should go from the headlamp connector earth to the battery earth??

Oh, and how do you attach smileys on this site - mine just don't work (grrrrr again)

Cheers all