First Gear Issue

So in additional summary, the one without the rebated splines, be it right or wrong, is what I received the bike with and the one that you would expect would Bind on the shaft but that's not the case. It is however the one that was installed when the bike fails to shift.

Okay, I got it. Wierd. Glad you have a good grip on the issue. I see nothing wrong with you modding the splines on that new gear. It's the route I'd take.

Polishing down the larger OD of the shaft's interferring splines a bit may also help, as long as it doesn't significantly reduce the snapring's seating grip.

Very strange indeed. I wonder if you've inherited something with a checkered past, possible previous 1st gear issues, and you've scratched a scab...

Yep. Glad You agree. Two passes on the gear and it was still a bit tight, but dressing down the shaft a tad did the trick. I will re-clean and polish a bit too for good measure. Tomorrow evening and Saturday I will re-assemble and triple-check everything along the way.

Oh by the way Yes when I bought it it would not go in first.
I knew that going in. It was just that not knowing these bikes at all, I was initially thinking that the broken pawl I found on the lever that rotates the drum, was the issue but that was just a by-product of the issue. I have high hopes on this re-assembly and know so much now than I did before. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I will let ya know in a few days what the result is.

OK so here is the result. Rode it a mile today and has no missed shifts. Got 5 gears. Did not slip out of gear. Once was a bit hard to find neutral. Rear chain still a bit tight as is the tranny. didnt ride too far as I still have a bit of sorting to do.
On reassembly I managed to get my end-play on the 2 installed transmission shafts to .003. Regarding the spinning gears on the shafts, 1 st 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th I managed to get them to 3 and 3 and 5 and 5 and 7/1000 so that's pretty damn tight.

Also Fu%^$%# that way over difficult kicker mech. As always it took 4 tries to get it indexed and loaded. All that's left is to figure out why I cant get fr brake right. I never measured the drum but with new shoes and new cable all adj all the way out I still cant get anywhere near a lock. also played with the connecting pod and reindexing the arms to the brake cam shafts. Maybe I got a New "mikes-xs" Cable that's too long but it is same as the old one that I never really evaluated.

Anyway I moving forward again instead of backward. P.S. I never did use the replacement shift arms and drum that I bought. I am still with the old ones and they seem fine.

Well done, Scooterbrain.
Thanx for following up on your thread.
You've advanced to resident transmission expert...

Agreed - this is a superb write up on the ins&outs of XS trannies!

In many ways, it is similar to the process used by Rolls Royce on their car transmissions back before the firm was bought by the Germans.

Essentially, Rolls bought Turbohydramatic 350 transmissions from GM and then stripped them right down to the last nut, bolt and clutch plate. They then honed, shaved, lapped and polished each part until it was dead-nuts flat, straight, smooth and sized right in the middle of its tolerance band - and then the unit was reassembled using their Hylomar Blue aerospace gasket goo and a torque wrench. This process is known as blue-printing by hot-rodders.

The GM TH350 had a fine reputation for quality & durability in those days, but failures were not totally unheard of. Rolls, on the other hand, never, ever had any failures with their re-manufactured transmissions.

Of course, the cost would have been prohibitive to do that to every single Chev or Buick, but for Lady Penelope's Roller....what the heck!