I bought my 82 FT500 about three years ago for the express purpose of learning more about engines. I figured a single cylinder engine was about as simple as they came. As soon as I got the bike home I started to completely disassemble it. I soon discovered a completely worn out starter pinion gear. After finding what replacements were going for on ebay, I put the project on hold for a while.
I eventually found and bought a replacement pinion gear in pretty good shape. That was probably 2 years ago, but I am just getting back to the project now. About 2 weeks ago I finished the engine tear down by splitting the crankcase. When I started the disassembly 3 years ago, I cleaned and carefully bagged and labeled all of the parts as I removed them. I continued with this practice through the remainder of the work. I bead blasted all of the engine parts and clear coated them before starting to reassemble the engine. I will attach a picture of the engine with the flywheel holder I made.
I have the thing almost completely built, but have just discovered a part I can’t find a place for. It was in the bag I had placed the parts for the oil pump and a few other things. I can’t find anything that looks like it in the shop manual.
Does anyone know what this thing is? Is it possible it is a stray part from a different project? I am pretty sure I missed a couple of steps getting the balancer timing right, so I am going to have to do some disassembly anyway.
