Thanks for the replies and suggestions, see my responses below. I guess I'll just have to noodle with it some more... The offer for a visit is still open, I'm perfectly willing to compensate someone for their time.
And if that doesn't work heat up the cylinder head, grip the outer piece with a pair of vice grips and place punch on the vice grips and whack it with a hammer.
It's best if you have two people doing this. One to pull the grips in a straight line, the other to punch in a straight line.
This is more or less what I was doing... the problem is that the vice grip kept sliding off the end of the shaft when struck. Maybe I just have crappy vice grips? I'm also 90% certain that if the vice grips _did_ hold, this method will probably result in breaking off the gear shaft flush the already-broken sleeve...
The only other thing I can think of to do is get a SHARP cold chisel and see if you can get a good bite on two of the gears teeth trying to 'punch' it out from the inside. Or possibly grind/cut a groove in the teeth so the chisel can get a good bite.
I'll give this some thought the next time I try.
Is it possible to get the gear out of the way by prying it up / down side to side so that the gear would break or maybe the shaft that the gear is pressed onto would break? Maybe using vice grips? In looking at the parts fiche, does it appear to anyone else that the sleeve does not have a ridge or any diameter difference? Additionally, do you think that the sleeve / gear assembly is merely pressed into the head until flush with outer head surface as shown in the first photo and does not come up against a ridge? My thought is, if the opening in the head is simply a machined hole just like a piston cylinder and is same diameter all the way through,could the assembly be driven from the front and into the valve area? Or at least to break it loose, knock it back a bit?
The issue is that the gear has a little nub on the back that goes into a hole in the head. If it didn't, I'd be happy to whack on the gear to just break it and get it out of there. But I want to be careful not to booger up that hole.
And with regard to heat, I am thinking the head will take a lot of it before any possible damage. Just thinking out loud
Agreed, but I've never been a motorcycle mechanic before this, so I don't know exactly how much localized heat it can realistically take. If I damage the head trying to get this out, it will become a parts bike. (Which I'm actually considering already, despite how much I've put into it up to this point.) If I knew all this was going to happen back when all I had was a leaky tach drive seal, I would have said eff it, let it leak.
Mine was broken off exactly the same way as yours. Tried vise grips, made a slide hammer, heated with an acetylene torch, none of these methods worked for me. What did work was a sharp blow with a drift got it moving and then it finally came out. Good luck.
Well, it's somewhat a relief to know I'm not the first this has happened to.
Can you tell me, where did you place the drift? On the rear edge of the gear? I tried whacking on the sleeve itself for a bit, but all that does is mushroom the aluminum.
Interested to hear about your slide hammer setup, too. It just occurred to me that I could try to find a keyed drill chuck, secure that to the end of the gear shaft and rig up some kind of slide hammer to it. Probably stands as good a chance at breaking the shaft as getting the whole thing out, though.
Do you have a cut off wheel such as a Dremel? Object of the exercise is to get the gear off and maybe the shaft out of the bushing or plug as well. If that could be done, a socket of a larger ID than the plug could be placed on the outside of the head over the plug to act as a receiver. A "C" clamp could be used to then force the plug into the socket. Or, socket placed as described, fit a bolt through the socket, through the hole in center of plug, a washer and nut then attached on the valve side. Perhaps hold that nut with an open end wrench if space is limited. Turn bolt head (which has a washer or 2 under it to keep from interfering with the square opening in socket) as required. I am thinking the plug would be pulled into the receiver socket.
Yep, the C-clamp trick might work if I can get the gear out. I have a dremel, but I don't think there's enough clearance to get a cut-off disc anywhere near the shaft of the gear. I might be able to cut notches into the "fins" on either side of the gear to get a teeny-tiny hacksaw in there, but I'm very leery of doing that since it might change how oil flows within that part of the head.
After looking at your picture I think this would work: Use a dremel to cut a groove in your tach gear perpendicular to it's axis about in the center just deep enough to capture a screw driver. Then using a hammer and screwdriver or drift to push the assembly out through the head using the gear as a pusher on the soft aluminum plug.
Considered this, but my fear is that the gear will simply spin upon whacking it. Unless maybe I can wedge a piece of wood or something underneath it...
Again, I very much appreciate the suggestions. Hopefully I can find some time this week to try them out. This weekend I'm taking the MSF basic rider course (second time, already licensed) and it's like 12 hours long both days!
