Try our new info resource - "Aladdin's Cave" (Main menu)Just added a separate link to Ash's Dropbox thread (shortcut)
I decided I had to try another cover, so I put out an appeal on the Z1 owners forum. Within a few hours i was riding to Rochdale to pick one up. Guess what? If you replace the cover as well as the shaft, it still binds! Impossible but true. At least I didn’t waste another £75 or so to find out. The guy I borrowed the cover from had suggested I try a washer between the cover and crankcase, in the corner that makes it bind when tightened, the lower left. Nothing to lose, I tried it, using a small spring washer over the dowel and it works! I can fully tighten up the cover without binding.It shouldn’t work, but it does. I can’t work out why, but life’s too short to overly worry about it. Next job is to reassemble with all the parts I left out to get to the bottom of things, and check I still have a free gear change, and clutch action.
No gasket, the cover is the one that Honda call the ‘mission cover’.It is supported at each of its 4 corners, with through bolts that screw into the crankcase, and dowels on the case to locate the cover. I wonder if the dowel in the problem corner may be damaged somehow, possibly slightly ovalled, but it’s hard to check as it’s embedded on the crank case and in an awkward place. It’s the sort of thing you should sort out before you put the engine in the frame.