Installing the drive side bearing

The drive side bearing is a tight fit, so stick it in the freezer overnight before fitting it, this will shrink it a little to help things along. Heat the casing, and then insert the bearing - it goes in either way. I used the old bearing as a drift, with a block of wood to spread the blow to the outer race. You must make sure its all the way in, but at the same time be careful to stop bashing it when its gone as far it can, as you may break the casing. When it is you shouldn't be able to slot in a feeler gauge between the casing and the outer race from the other side.

The oil seal fits into the drive plate with the sprung lip pointing towards the crank. All oil seals like this have the spring on the side of the source of oil or the highest pressure. Make sure the seal sits as flush as possible with the face of the plate.

Grease the bearing with high melting point grease, and then place the gasket centrally onto the bearing.



Make sure this sits snug, as if it is raised up anywhere it will cause problems when screwing down the plate. Now place the plate in place - it should sit virtually flush without screwing it down. If it doesn't you may not have pushed your bearing all the way home. This happened to me, and I was only to find out a lot later after fitting the crankshaft and mag housing, and finding that I'd run out of room and my crank web rubbed on the mag housing!



Use threadlock when fitting the plate screws, but do a dry-run first without threadlock to ensure the screws go in all the way and that there are no blockages or problems. When finally fitting, tighten each screw a little at a time in a diagonal pattern, to ensure that the plate goes down flat. Screw in to about 0.5 kgm (this isn't easy with a flat screw head, and I think next time I'll use allen-head screws), and check again that the plate is flush with the casing.