Hello Gino
Great research there. I admire that you could resolve the issue yourself
by listening to what others say in the context of your own knowledge
and experience. You clearly have mechanical aptitude.
Yep, totally agree. The shaft is clearly supported by a thrust bearing
designed for the job. The thrust bearing, itself, was chosen because it
would take some acceptable factory-set misalignment.
For it to work, it does also require a self-aligning bearing in the bearing
housing next to the frame. Any cheapening of that is a compromise.
Rover did cheapen the design. The issue, for me, is whether they compromised
the design as well. They did discard the cotter arrangement in favour of
off-the-shelf square head screws. I'm more interested to know whether your
machine has a self-aligning bearing in the side frame housing. Also, could
you also tell us whether the housing for that bearing is plastic?
It could be argued that the mysterious 'balance weight' had noting to do
with the balancing of the clutch assembly, but was some sort of micro-
balance for the motor. That's just speculation on my part.
Cheers
---------------------------------
JACK
