Thanks. I have tried by hand, by foot, used my head, my knee.....it just is not there. I messed with the clutch adjustment, moved the position of the gear shift lever around, adjusted the play in the linkage and nothing seems to work. I remember it always being difficult to get into neutral, but not this bad. When I had the stator cover off I looked as best I could to make sure nothing was loose inside or underneath the gears.

The weird thing is I was able to get it into neutral when it was on the bench and out of the frame. I checked multiple times before I put the cases back together and also checked once I had the engine assembled. I even was able to put it into neutral a time or two after everything was assembled. At some point prior to starting the engine I went through the gears and the shifting felt odd, real tight is the best way I can describe it. Then, everything freed up but I had no neutral. So, as much as I hate to admit it or to think about it I have a feeling either a shift fork or the shift drum is jacked up, something fell out of place or I goofed something up during assembly.

For now it runs pretty strong so I am going to leave it. My choke is not working as it should either, it slides out of place and will not stay on, I need to replace the front shocks, I need to pull the handle bars to paint them and replace the grips etc. So, this winter I will tear it down again, hopefully before I find an old tractor to rebuild.