Issues AGAIN! 1984 Honda big red

[Fourwheelhorse]

I swear if I ever buy another one of these Honda bikes in a box again.. it will be the last thing I do! Anyhow, I had to remove the flywheel due to it sheared a key, the flywheel literally came off in my hands, I purchased a new key and installed it. Then I re-installed the flywheel and buttoned it all up. Started the bike and lo and behold it sheared that key as well. To make a long story short, I figured out that the flywheel wasn’t seating against the starter gear, the nose of the crankshaft was about 1/4 inch till it hit the threads on the flywheel. That’s most likely why it has been shearing keys. So now the question.. why in the world won’t it fit all the way? I tapped it with a dead blow , I lubricated the crank before installing the flywheel, still it won’t slide all the way to starter gear. Anyone else have issues with this? I’m sure it’s the correct flywheel the key way is correct as well. Any thoughts?

[Fourwheelhorse]

I guess maybe an easier question would be; can anyone tell me if the flywheel is supposed to seat up against the starter gear? It looks the me as if the flywheel has never seated that far? Or another way to put it, does it seat all the way to the threads on the nose of the tapered crankshaft? I can only get it to go so far then it stops. You can tell by the wear marks on the flywheel that it’s been that way for quite a while. I was having issues with the flywheel shearing. Would anyone have photos they could share.. possibly a close up of a flywheel that seated correctly.

[Fourwheelhorse]

Well, I gave up and sent it my local bike shop, he is actually super familiar with these machines. He got the flywheel fitted, but had to do some minor machining. The bike runs perfect!