I put more of the bike together today.

The first thing I did was check the valves.  They were really close and I only adjusted one exhaust and one intake....they were both just a bit tighter than the other valve - so I tried to get them as close as I could at 0.004".

I then worked on the clutch side and put the stock oil drive gears in place, and then the clutch, right side cover, exhaust and carb.

For some time the clutch has been dragging just a bit.  Not so much that it causes any issue putting the bike in gear or shifting - just enough that finding neutral is made a bit difficult.  While assembling the clutch I notice that there seemed to be some excessive drag when I would turn the inner and outer hubs with the plates in.  I took the clutch apart and left the plates out and assembled just the inner and outer hubs and torqued it down....and there was drag and it seemed the hubs were held too tightly together.

I took the clutch apart and started looking closely - and I could see the washers had wear on them where the sleeve pushed against the washers.  This likely happened during the period that I had assembled the clutch without the spring washer on the outer fiber disc and used a disc with the full thickness.  Both DragBikeMike and I tried this and it seemed to work just fine at first - then after a few rides I started to get a squeal/shudder when first letting the clutch out.  The clutch was not happy with that spring washer being gone and we both put it back into the clutch assembly (lesson learned).  It appears however that it created wear on the washer that causes the inner/outer hub to be too close together.  I had some washers that were in better shape and used those - I am going to order some new washers.

The clutch basket and pump drive gear should turn independently from the trans input shaft and sleeve.  The sleeve is pinched between the two large thrust washers.  I believe when the basket cocks and starts to bind on the sleeve it tends to rotate the sleeve on the input shaft.  I think that is what causes the heavy wear and galling on the washers.  Once the washers wear a bit the nut becomes loose and the condition gets worse.

Do you recall if you had any bronze deposits on your sleeve, or any indication of heavy wear or galling on the sleeve?

This is an example of what mine was doing.

Unfortunately - I did not pay attention to how tight the clutch nut was when I took thinks apart - I used my electric torque wrench and "zapped" it off!

The shaft bushing looks good - just a bit of a polished sheen on the outermost surface at each end.

The oil pump drive gear was definitely rubbing on the washer as shown by the wear marks - it does however have clearance when on a new washer that is flat.

Here is the backside of the washer - you can see where it was moving and got some scarring where the washer is in contact with the inner bearing race.

I will put in new washers when I go back in to install the overdrive pump gears.....once I get a few miles "oil leak free" miles with the stock oil pump gears and get baseline oil pressure data.

Today I will likely get oil in the bike and start it up for the first run with the new piston.  Breaking in the new skirt coating requires just a short run to get some heat in the piston/cylinder - then a shut down and complete cool off.  This process is repeated a few times prior to going on any ride - and the first few rides are very short and very little throttle.

(NOTE:  While I was waiting for the coated piston to come back from getting the skirt coated - I replaced the worn cam chain in the 1972 BMW R75/5 that has 60,000 miles on it.  On Friday, February 20 it was 60 degrees and the roads were clear and dry, and I took the bike for a test ride and it did great.  Now 3 days later on Monday morning it is 22 degrees and overnight we got a new layer of snow covering everything......Dagummit!)    

I had a bit of a setback for riding recently - we had a water service line leak that put us out of water for nearly 2 weeks.  It was a major project and I did my best to fix it myself by digging up a 'TEE" that I suspected was the cause.  Then I had to hire a professional plumber and turn this into a major project....we got our water back yesterday around 6PM.

I went on my first "ride" today after getting the engine back together with a new factory 'OEM" head gasket and the Line2Line abradable coating on the piston skirt....along with putting the stock oil pump gears in temporarily.

The ride went great and it is so nice to be back on this bike!  There are no signs of oil leakage, the engine runs smooth and quiet and it appears it is back to being the bike I have enjoyed so much.

On the ride out from home I kept the throttle settings very low and didn't go over 3,000 rpm.  I never felt the piston coating creating any drag as the piston came up to temperature.  I have moved the temperature sensor up to the front, top right mounting hole for the cylinder head chrome cover.....it really doesn't provide any relevant information up that high on the head as the temperature never went over 121 on the ride.

The stock oil pump gears with 5w-40 Rotella T6 provided 9psi at the oil filter housing and 4 psi at the cam oil circuit in the head at 3,000 rpm.  At idle I had 4 psi at the filter housing and "maybe" 0.5psi at the cam...although it was more likely a reading of 0psi at 1,100rpm.

On the way back I still didn't go over 3,000 rpm - but I did apply a bit more throttle and was close to riding at my normal cruising speeds.

Looks like it is going to be a great summer!!!!!!!