Pic below from an eBay ad for a lower case. Note the drain plug slightly behind the windage tray location, so if it did fall under the back edge of the tray it might be reachable with a magnet through the drain plug. I've never had one out of the lower case so I can't say what ribs might be under it that could prevent you reaching it from the drain plug if in the forward area.
Yes, flip the engine over so it's sitting on the cylinder studs and the upper rear of the crankcase, then (with all crankcase bolts removed both top and bottom) lift off the lower case. It does require both crankcase covers to be removed (alternator and clutch) as well as the complete clutch and oil pump, as well as the shift shaft removed before removing the lower case. Once all bolts are removed, tap the motor mount areas gently with a hammer until you hear a hollow sound of the lower case coming loose, then lift it off.
I will heartily endorse double checking that you have all the bolts out not that I personally ever missed one and couldn't figure out why that blank blank case wouldn't come apart. Yeah that was another guy I know.
Well, just don't do this when things won't come apart easily right away, instead take a break and look for bolts you may have forgotten to remove
Note you’ll have an obnoxious time because the wind age tray itself is also steel.
I've posted this a bunch in other builds. You gotta get one of these. It's my most used tool.
You're going to replace the top bridge anyway so take the big nut off the top of the steering stem shaft and just remove the top bridge. Then you can remove the rubber fitted spacer for the fork ears and shine a light down inside the fork ears to see how much rust there is on the upper part of the fork tubes.
I believe inside the cover, against the circlip (#13), is the correct position
Don’t forget the antiseize if you’re running new hardware, and drop your torque values a little for the stainless hardware with fresh antiseize on it. I’m pretty sure spec is 9 ft/lb so you don’t want to be slamming those home at gudentight “feel” - aluminum threads are soft.
Ancientdad is right about removing that big capnut then the upper triple clamp first. Then the fork ears can slide up and off. I was amazed at how much rust was in my chrome fork ears, also rust on the fork tubes, which I removed with a long strip of emery cloth. After that a flat blade screwdriver can be tapped into the lower triple clamp slits to loosen them just enough that the fork tubes will slide out easy.
Sparckmoto wiring harness. Where do the brown/white wires from each gauge go? I have a brown/white from the harness and a brown with female from the harness. Am I missing another couple female connectors? I knew I'd be intimidated by the wiring!
This brown with white appears to come from the right handlebar switch, and dash lights are illuminated when the headlight is on. Is there not a 3 or 4 way connector at the end of that wire?
IOW, not for that model? or not OEM?
Dark blue is generally high beam on Hondas. 4into1 sells OEM-style replacements but it's almost as if they're a generic version, kinda one size fits all, so they sometimes don't have all the wires an original does.
Do you mean electric starter, or the kickstart? Because if you've already kick it over with the kickstarter and the cam timing was not correct, you'll likely have a bent valve already,
If whatever you feel will hold the engine still so you can unscrew the rotor bolt, then either the bolt wasn't very tight at all or it's a lot more than a valve stopping the engine from turning.
Well, we didn't get to see any of the engine reassembly so it's difficult for us to know, though your description of things certainly doesn't sound good.
During assembly it's pretty easy to slip a tooth or two, not so much after it's assembled unless you don't put the tensioner assembly back on and adjust the chain before turning it over. Bumping the electric starter would still have enough push to bend a valve IF it was about to happen (within the distance of the starter movement of the crankshaft). And sorry but no, the top cover can't be removed in the frame. Aside from a valve being the reason you feel resistance, there isn't much else that could cause that unless the kickstarter gear was stuck in the engaged position and it's trying to turn the clutch and transmission (though I'm not at all sure how that would feel when rotating).
I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but if you post pictures along the way, sometimes we can spot something you might not notice or be aware of. Aside from just the fact that we like pictures, it's how we've helped discover and solve lots of surprises.
