Dry test trouble shooting

I seeked help from Hiro and he gave me some good advice in terms of how to identify the grinding sound between neutral & 1st gear. Here are Hiro's suggestions:

"It is a good time to see if the gears mesh perfectly and how the noise can be generated by turning the motor by hand, shifting the gear through 1st to 4th from neutral. I am doubting the gears on the selecting rod installed with improper alignment. In case, the noise comes from the grind between the gears and shift cross. Assuming the noise can be heard during the acceleration with fully engaged clutch.

Once again, I will doubt the clutch unit if the half engaged clutch generates the noise.

I doubt the improper alignment between 1st and 2nd gear (which should have room for the neutral) or worn gears(both gears on the cush drive and the gear shift)/shift cross. I need to check if the gear cable adjustment and the condition of the waved (which align the gear location) dishes in the gear cable adjustment unit. There is a possibility that the peak(s) between the neutral position and the 1st position was worn badly and can not stay in the 1st position to grind inside the gear on shift unit."

Thank you Hiro!

Cush drive inspection

I will post a detailed photo up of my cush drive soon. I have noticed that the bearing which was replaced during the engine rebuilt is a sealed bearing and it is my understanding that the caged style bearing is preferred here. I will need to remove the seal around the bearing.

I have also noted that there is some warping on the top plate of the cush drive between the rivets and I wonder what kind of impact that could or not have with regards to the grinding sound.

Tom G. taught me the best way to test the cush drive:
"Shaking the cush is not a valid test. Hold the large gear in one hand and the cluster in the other hand. Now twist hard. If the big gear moves with relation to the cluster gear, then rebuild. If no movement, the assy is fine."

Cush drive removal

I invested some time over the past few days to remove the cush drive. Here is a slideshow of the process:
My goal was to remove ONLY what I must and to leave as much of the engine in tact as possible. A huge thank you to Tom G., who mentored me through the process as well as Paul S., who helped me through some of the tactical steps.

It feels as if I have been blogging about scooter restoration for quite some time. In the beginning I couldn't find any that did it in detail and that's why I decided to document the details for others like me via a blog. Also, many blogs start the documentation process, but either the bike and or the blog never seem to reach completion. Today there are many more resources available for the newbie and novices online (or course the best are the experienced wrenchers), and I'd like to recommend two resources for you that have been trustworthy and around a lot longer than me. Here are two articles I used for this process . . . transmission removal from ScooterHelp.com and brake shoes removal from Paul S.'s site ScooterLounge.com.

The next step is for me to inspect my cush drive and then rebuild it. I plan to do that work myself.