1200S: service time, part 4

A snap ring retains the clutch adjustment shaft, which comes out with its own housing and bearing. This has a little bit of play but I think it's normal; there are no signs of incorrect wear.

Time to get serious, we have to remove the primary drive as a whole, this requires removing the clutch retaining nut at the end of the mainshaft, as well as the crankshaft nut. The clutch will be the subject of a separate post, but for the time being it is simple enough to remove as a complete unit. The crankshaft nut is on there at a ridiculous torque setting of 200ft.-lb. There is no point faffing around with extra-long breaker bars, mallets or anything like that. The only way you're going to remove these nuts without damaging anything (or yourself) is with a high-powered, high-torque impact wrench, and heat applied to soften the Loctite. We do have a small, quarter-inch conventional air-powered one but it's nowhere near powerful enough to get the job done, so I switched to a half-inch electric impact wrench. These seem to be quickly becoming the new standard for hobbyists at least, and the battery-powered ones appear to be of higher specs, generally, than corded versions. 

Heat is absolutely essential to get the job done, you cannot succeed without it. As it happens, the clutch hub nut had an enormous amount of Loctite on it as you can see from those two curlies in the next photo, and it took a while to soften and eventually break loose with the impact wrench. Do not forget this is a LEFT-HAND THREAD here:

A cupped lockwasher sits behind it, pay attention to the orientation when refitting:

The crankshaft nut came off without problems:

I used a conventional ratchet to finish taking off the clutch and crankshaft nuts as soon as I saw them break loose. The primary locking "shoe" from Lowbrow Customs worked a treat, it got a little chewed up, just like it was supposed to, and it's a valuable tool to have for this type of job. The flashy green isn't just for show (although it is an awesome color), it's bright so you don't accidentally forget it in your primary drive...

At this point you can lift the triplex chain with its front sprocket (and the alternator rotor), and the clutch basket as a unit. The magnets in the rotor will fight you a little bit as they come out, but it's really not that bad:

TO BE CONTINUED...