Got it pulled apart and sure enough its been worked on before, marks on the primary gear and some of the cover bolts were actually loose. Gonna measure the end play on the crank see what that looks like. Maybe I can find a used primary gear and matching clutch basket. They don't look worn but it obvious someone removed the primary gear on the crank. DAMIT! Wasn't a very good deal at this point as far as noise goes, hopefully it doesn't break before I can sell it off.

Thanks for letting me know about that. Gears are marked up badly, Cam tensioner must have failed. Both gears look like they ran with something stuck between them. No metal laying inside but when I 1st changed the oil there was lots of glitter in the oil. Also looks like the cam tensioner is new because there is absolutely no wear marks on it at all.Yeah well, if the gears are chewed up everything else in there has some wear on it too. Prolly best to get rid of it soon. Next time its clean bike with service history or no buy. I jumped on this not knowing what issues these savages can get into to at low mileage. Its probably ok to drive, its just noisy but who knows? The trans is very hard to shift too. Hell most jap bikes aren't even broke in at this mileage. Lesson learned movin on Thanks for the help everyone.

Something else they may have replaced the cam chain because there magic marker marks on the primary gears and the crank and nut. And inside the cover someone penned 2 1/2 with a marker?

I wonder if I could getaway with just taking the clutch cover off and using a impact gun to spin the crank nut off without pulling the other side apart to hold the crank? I'm sure I can find the primary gears used someplace.


I found a nice looking gear on fleabay for 15 bucks, I'm willing to try changing it.

I didn't take any hands dirty with oil last thing I'm thinking about is taking pictures, If I go back in to replace the gears I'll take a few of the gears once I get cleaned up. I need to know If I can simply use a impact on the crank or must I remove the other side to hold it. If anyone knows please post up. It really wasn't much to pull the cover so I'm willing to go as far as replacing the 2 gears if I can buy a used set that were run together. So Far i'm only finding seperate pieces. I really do like this bike so it would be nice to save it. I looked at whole engines but I can only find nasty looking junk on fleabay for 750-1000<just not worth it to me. I can sell this for a 1000 and add another 1500 and find a nicer bike just like this. The marking on the gears look like it ate the spring inside the cam tensioner.

No but I can, at this point its undoubtedly the primary gears and sure enough thats where the noise was coming from. No one knows about removing and replacing the primary gears? Someone must have done it at sometime on this site.

Carefully inspect the piece on the crank that the cam sprocket slides onto.  When someone doesn't know that the crankshaft nut is left hand thread, they can overtighten the nut and fracture that part.  Once fractured it no longer holds the crankshaft together and a small pin that holds the gear for the counterbalancer can come loose - and the next thing you know the balance shaft is out of time and hits the crankshaft.....then the blance shaft gets knocked out the front side of the engine case!

Dave wrote on 04/20/24 at 14:05:47:
GOOD LORD!

I bought some T6 5-40 see if it helps the shifting.

Which may result in this.