Hello everyone. Thank you all for your posts, they have helped me allot in the past. Wanted to give back a little, so here is my story.

There was a grinding noise coming from the Primary whenever I would try and start the old '74. It would eventually turn over after after a minute or so, but made an awful sound. I ignored it for some time, but after awhile the clutch started to slip and I decided to do both repairs. So after reading the HD manual it stated that the Battery, Starter Solenoid, Oil Tank, ETC, had to come out...and I thought there must be an easier way...and there was.

Here is what I did.

*** First, you MUST remove the positive battery cable. This has to be done. DO NOT skip this step. More on why later. ***

- I took off the Primary cover, and removed the old clutch plates. In this forum Iron Mick showed a picture of a compressor he made from a 2x2 piece of wood, threaded rod, and some washers/bolts.

- Then I removed hub nut and the front chain adjuster, then the clutch shell with a puller.

- I can now get to the Pinion Gear.

- On my '74 the bottom half of the shift lever will move out. I pushed on the solenoid plunger(if you don't remove the positive battery cable like you were supposed to, the starter will engage even with the ignition switch off) and simply wiggled and pulled down and out on the Pinion Gear and shaft assembly.


- Now I removed the Pinion Shaft Nut(reverse thread, clockwise to loosen!) and removed the Shifter Collar and Pinion Gear as one piece. Once the Shifter collar was removed I could see the root cause of the grinding noise. There was a stress crack that prevented proper engagement of the gear.


- I put the new Pinion Gear on the shaft. At first I thought the new Accel gear would not fit, but I just lubed the shaft and gear and worked it back and forth a few times and it went right on.


- I put the assembly all back together and wiggled it back into place.
*** Make sure the top and bottom of the shift lever are properly seated in the Shifter Collar.

- Once that was done, the Clutch Shell went back on and I tested the starter. Worked great!

Very happy. I was able to do both repairs without taking the whole bike apart.

 

Congrats! on getting a technical job done. A couple of things ...

A little correction here -

*** First, you MUST remove the negative battery cable. This has to be done. DO NOT skip this step. More on why later. ***

Do you have the factory service manual 99484-78? Virtually every service manual for every vehicle always states to disconnect the -ve battery cable before servicing the vehicle - to prevent accidental startup. This is usually repeated at many places thruout the manual. It is easier and safer to disconnect the -ve cable as you will not get sparks it you touch the wrench to metal during disconnecting.

Hhmmmm, You are supposed to remove the front engine sprocket, the clutch and primary chain as an assembly. But it appears that you removed/re-installed the clutch with the other parts still in there?

How did you torque the big clutch hub nut back on? It requires at least 150 ft lbs. Do you have a torque wrench? I believe the front engine sprocket nut requires ~200 ft lbs [but i do not recall exactly].

Nice job!

 

Back from the holidays....

- I did disconnect the Negative terminal as stated in the manual, but when I pressed in the solenoid to move the armature forward, it engaged the starter...yikes! So I disconnected the positive terminal as well and all was fine.

- I guess my primary chain has allot of miles on it and has stretched a bit because once I removed the rear sprocket nut, I was able to slide it off of the pinion and remove it.

- Yep, I did torque the nut with a wrench after putting the rear sprocket back on by wedging a block of wood between the front and rear sprockets.

Several hundred miles after the repair, everything is working perfectly.

 

Just be aware as Mick says...... The chain and sprockets come off as a unit.
If you removed your clutch basket without removing the chain and front sprocket, then you have a very, very worn out primary chain.

And here is the danger of that......
Should that chain break, the chance of it jamming in the clutch basket or engine sprocket is just super high!
The result of that could be the engine crankcases have a large hole knocked out of them.
At that point you have nothing but a parts bike.

Also, a worn out chain quickly eats up teeth on all sprockets.
My advice to you is to get a new primary chain, and do it very soon.
pg