The dogs and the slots that engage on second gear are tapered so bad that they force the gears to seperate when under a load. It kinda felt like the chain and sprockets were junk and slipping, but only in second gear. Has anyone seen or heard of this before? This is the first time I've seen this and was surprised that it could jump in and out and slip like it was doing without something breaking. I am however glad nothing broke, which would have lead to even more damage. If anyone is keeping track the production number is 21566

I'd like to go back with 2002 parts, I know some people have said that it will work, But can anyone verify that they will work and that all of the parts are available?

TIA

Also while I was tearing it down I checked out the decompression mechanism on the cam. There is a very easy way to eliminate it without doing any welding. Remove the cam, then remove the gear from the cam. Turn the inner shaft so the decompression pin is portuding out of the cam. Now pull the inner shaft out, be careful not to lose the pin or spring as the shaft comes out (they will fall out the hole on the opposite side of the cam) Take the pin to a bench grinder and remove enough length from the pin that when it is in the decompression mode it no longer portrudes from the cam enough to touch the rocker arm.

To reassemble the mechanism hold the pin and spring in the portruding posistion with a small rod through the hole on the opposite side (I used a 3/32" welding rod), and push the inner shaft back in place. Once the inner shaft hits the small rod you can remove it and push the inner shaft all the way in.