"Is it colossally stupid to ride without the front pulley cover?"

 Colosally?  I'd say no.  Plenty of people do it.

 Do people get things stuck in there and wreck their bikes?  Yes.

Theduderino wrote on 10/19/21 at 04:10:57:


After cleaning, Dan Stafford is the genius I think, if "the rubber seal for the neutral safety switch" is that black boxy port the wires go into, encircled in green in an earlier photo. Then the oil runs down and pool on a bolt and drips to the floor or blows across the underbelly of the case cover. Pulley doesn't seem involved.

Here's a more thorough video tour: https://youtu.be/vuSoFuWJgbI

Neil it looks to me you have something going on with your pulley splines
judging by the rust? streaks

Is getting inside the crankcase cover not recommended for amateurs?

verslagen1 wrote on 10/25/21 at 06:23:40:

Appreciate your confidence in me
After an hour of searching, I can't find a video or a picture it helps at all with removing the crank case. Do you have any recommended places or strings to search with? Seems like what parts guides call the crankcase cover I've seen called covers for the generator, magneto, and stator. Yeesh

The crank case is the part that holds the crank and you'll need to remove the engine 1st to split the case... I don't think you want to do that.

The stator cover is what you need to remove.
You'll need a gasket to put it back together.
You'll need to remove the kickstand.
Remove all the bolts, they're varying lengths so figure out how to get them back into the same holes.
Pry the cover loose just to break the gasket loose cause to pull the cover off will take some effort as you'll have to fight against the magnets to get it off.

The black box is a rubber plug molded on the wires, you won't be able to take it off.
It slips into the cover.
Just clean it, slather rtv on it and put it back in.