Hitchcocks Forum

Doing the 4 / 5 speed conversion all going really well until I tried to fit the clutch - I cannot back out the adjuster enough to allow the pressure plate to fit so I need to reduce the length of the pushrod slightly.

Easy I thought to pop the outer cover off the gearbox and change the pushrod, but how on earth does the outer cover come off ?

I removed all of the cover screws, and tried no amount of trying to ease the cover but it just will not.

Bearing in mind it is a RH conversion at first I thought it was the gearchange oil seal holding the cover on, but does not seem to be, then thought perhaps that the gearchange shaft comes away with the cover - tried putting it in gear, neutral even waggling the gear lever, but it just will not seperate.

What am I not doing - what is the secret of removing the gearbox cover on a RH change box?

I think the covers on mine are located with a couple of dowel pins as well as the 6mm Allen screws, these might be a little stiff, otherwise with the kickstart and gear change levers and ALL the outer screws removed there should be no real obstacle to removing the outer cover, unless some extra-tenacious gasket compound has been used. If you look at the top left of the cover there are what appears to be some unused lugs cast into the alloy for some sort of mechanism which was never actually fitted. Get a longish stout pierce of wood, place this at the back of the lug from behind the gearbox and try a good whack with a mallet.



If you damage the gasket and need to replace it, you might need two rather than one, as the current crop seem to have been cut from a green material which is a tad too thin, loss of end float can cause the kickstart lever to bind against the casing.



A.

Thanks Adrian - just wanted to be sure that there was no special procedure as the cover is reluctant to seperate from the case.

All screws have been removed - I did notice the lug that you speak of.

Ill have a go at tapping on that lug with a length of wood tomorrow.

Apart from having to shorten the push rod the conversion has gone like clockwork - the only other obstacle I have to overcome is a gear linkage as mine is a Watsonian Squire Clubmans GT it has semi rear sets, already have a solution in mind.

Got the cover off in the end - the casting really needs something to get some purchase on near to the gear lever shaft.

Turns out that the short pushrod from the old 4 speed box was just the right length.

Next step is to make up the gear linkage - a man needs something to do these dark winter nights.

Cheers.

Well, if you're looking for things to do, is the newly-removable end cover powder-coated? It might look better stripped and polished, otherwise it will seem a bit odd next to the engine's polished timing cover.



A.

Ba careful, I've seen a 3-4mm difference in the alignment of the primary chain when switching to a 5 speed gearbox.

Easiest way to remove the pushrod is to stick a small magnet on the end of a little rod and pull it out from the clutch side.

Dave.

I was very careful to check chain alignment. I ended up putting the sprocket on the crank and then torqued up the clutch nut on the gearbox splines, I then laid a straight edge accross the faces of the sprockets to check alignment.

It all appeared to be fine so I was satisfied that the chain lined up OK.

Adrian.

The thought did cross my mind re the powder coated cover, that will be job for the future once all the mechanics are sorted and I have put a few miles on the bike.