Well Saturday, morning I finished replacing bearings in the crankcase, they are all new now except the blind one in the gearbox, which felt ok (read I don't have a blind bearing remover!), the primary shaft was also dismantled and a new bearing fitted in the middle, plus the one at the generator end was replaced (that was the expensive one!). There is something about smacking lumps of steel into my poor weak aluminium crankcase which makes this process somewhat stressful, knowing that RG 500 crankcases are like rocking horse manure - although I find with age, I tend to succeed these things rather than 30 years ago I would have messed it up!
After that I cleaned up the water pump and re-installed the pump and cover, and then put the engine back in the frame, while it is still light enough to carry. All three engine fixing points lined up OK, (no warping of the engine cases - phewwww!), so then the gearbox went back in. Had to resort to asking my fellow gamma owners (on the Gamma list), where the 1mm O'ring on the end of the secondary shaft went - so that stopped play, just in time for a lovely ride out on Libby's Street - just to charge the battery you understand!
Anyway the O'ring goes on the outside of the main output shaft bearing, so that was duly put in place Sunday morning, I must have removed the box at least 10 times, due to a number of little problems - first the kickstart mechanism somehow moved, and then I lost the small tab that holds the gearchange barrel in place, in fact it had jammed in the gear change mechanism, - thank goodness the gears would move because I was 2 steps a way from fitting the kickstart and heaving on it, which obviously would only have made things worse! Anyway after all the faffing about, got the gearbox in and tightened up, then I had to fit the rear sprocket, in order to hold the clutch inner basket for tightening, so then I fitted the neutral switch ball and spring (spring goes in first) and the oil pump plate (no pump here), and then the gear lever plate, which was very stiff to fit (hmmmm), and finally the rear sprocket and chain!
After a lot of heaving on the end of a spanner the clutch was fitted, and the cover on, and now all that is left is the rest! Another great ride out on the Dayto Sunday afternoon with Fred on his Moto Guzzi, should have taken the Ducati really but I haven't tested the work that was done on it, and I should probably change the oil. Still I needed all the power of the Daytona to keep up with Fred, a really lovely afternoon, around 15-16 degrees, and then back in time for a few beers in front of England beating Wales - what better way to spend a day!
