Airwolfie
XS650 Guru
Hopefully its raining in Texas and he hasn't got his fire alight yet (has it ever rained in TX ?)
The exposed end which has the cutout for the locating plate we can see that it has the rubber bung fitted so thats ok.
The other end of the tube doesn't have a bung as far as I know . It sits inside a hole in the crankcase which goes right through the crankcase.
If the crankcase hole is blanked off with weld or has an aluminium plug closing it off then no oil will leak from the gear selector fork shaft at either end job done.
Your'e gonna have to remove the RH side cover whatever happens in order to see what you have.
The problem you have is two fold.
1. you need to get the fork selector shaft to protrude further to expose the cutout on the shaft for the locating plate to sit in.
2. you need to check the crankcase hole on the other side to see if it is plugged and plug it if its open.
If the crankcase hole is open,......... thats great ! because then you can put a thin rod in the hole on the RH side and drift (bang) the selector fork shaft assembly back through the LH side a 1/4" or so ,so that it protrudes far enough that you can see the cutout.
If its welded or plugged then you try to get a grip on the end of the selector fork shaft and pull it out a bit or you could drill a hole big through the weld or plug enough for a drift to fit and plug it afterwards.
If it has an aluminium plug then again you could try pry it out then drift the selector fork bar then replug the crankcase hole.
I do know there was NO ally plug anywhere to be seen, and the left hand side is definately plugged up. I have read somewhere that the later engines didn't have the ally plug so I'm hoping this is the case with mine. I have an 81...
Going to try and get the shaft out with some neodium magnets I have, hopefully it's not too tight in there so I can get it out!