To paraphrase the David Bowie song. Because some things don't work out as planned.

That repro oil filter leaked the first kick. I had a few spare filters and gasket kits, but if you've ever seen the kits, you know there's quite a few gaskets in them. As much as I liked the way the old one looked, I'm after reliability, so I replaced it with a spin-on type. Doesn't leak a bit, and the standard HD long type (really mid-sized) replacements are easy enough to get.

Also note the stainless steel bolts on the kicker cover. On my second ride (the weekend after the Wednesday I got it running) I went 2 miles and there arose such a clatter. I got it home and pulled the primary chain and clutch off, and found that by rotating the clutch hub the clicking was still there. Since Andy had done the transmission work, I didn't want to go any further, but it sounded to me like the kicker gears were staying engaged.

Monday I went to his shop and told him what was going on. He made it out Wednesday and I pulled the brake and exhaust off so he could pull the cover. The kick starter gear was wobbling on the mainshaft and once the starter clutch gear was pulled off we saw it had lost a tooth. I found the tooth in the drain pan, so luckily it hadn't made its way into the gearbox. The fluid looked like I had been panning for gold, with all the bronze chips from the bushing. I pulled the plug underneath the transmission and sprayed the gearbox with a couple of cans of carb cleaner through the hole in the kicker side and hoped for the best.

Andy ordered me a new gear set free of charge, but both of us were so busy we couldn't get together to put it back in. When I finally had time I went over to see when he could come by, and he was covered with work so I just got the parts to put them in myself. Working on so many other clueless people's bikes he was worried if I knew what I was doing, but the fact is I had originally put the transmission together myself on my living room table years ago when I was a bachelor and could get away with using that as a workbench. The only thing I couldn't do then was align the shifter forks since I didn't have the tool. I didn't notice it that much running a jockey, but after I put the handshift on I had problems with the gear engagement matching the shift gate, and that was the main reason I took the transmission to Andy this time.

I use the old style throw out bearing, and I had a heck of a time getting it to stay on while I tried to get the kicker cover on the studs, so I finally decided to pull the studs so I didn't have to deal with them until I got everything lined up and back in. I'm glad I did. I decided to replace the studs with hex bolts since I couldn't come up with allens in Small Town USA, and when I was threading them in, one wouldn't catch. The threads n the aluminum case were nearly stripped, and although it probably had a couple that were enough to barely hold a stud, there wasn't enough to hold a bolt. So I draped a rag over the guts and helicoiled the bad hole, then used the air hose to blow out the case (with my finger over that hole to the gearbox) in the event the rag didn't shield it from all the chips from drilling and tapping. After that, everything lined up easy and I got the bolts in and filled it up with HD Semi-Syn.

When I put the pipes back on I followed Andy's suggestion of using hi-temp RTV on the exhaust flanges before bolting them back up to the heads to avoid leaks. First time I've heard of doing that.

I cranked it up and put 20 miles on it. Everything seems OK.

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