I used a plastic zip tie to hold the spring in place while tapping the cases together. Worked like a charm.

Thank you both for the kickstart spring warning. I saw a post by mdscott awhile back about using the zip tie so that's what I've been doing on my practice sessions. Seems to work very well.

I had a bit of trouble but got the case halves reassembled. The crank was a very tight in the new bearings but I guess (hope) that is normal. My homemade crank puller worked fine but I was not expecting how much pressure it would take to pull the crank in. When I got it down to only about a quarter inch to go I was having to pull much harder on the wrench than I wanted to and was getting more concerned by the minute that I was going to break something so I decided to use the case bolts to finish pulling it all together and that worked very well.

Tightened each bolt a little at a time, alternating from side to side, end to end until both sides came up snug against each other. Thought I was done only to find that the crank felt too tight. I could turn it but it felt like something was wrong. Certainly wasn't the smooth easy spinning crank I was expecting.

I had kept an eye on everything as I pulled it together and felt that everything had lined up as it was supposed to and yet the crank didn't spin freely. After studying things for awhile I noticed the crank wasn't exactly centered between the cases. Crap, now what! I puzzled on it quite awhile and scratched most of the hair off the hair off my head trying to figure out where I messed up.

It finally came to me that by pulling the final quarter inch with the case bolts maybe the crank wasn't fully sealed on that side. So put the puller back on, gave a slight turn of the wrench and I heard an audible click, looked and saw that the crank was now centered. Took off the puller and gave the crank a spin. , It spun easily and smooth as butter Whew, scary few minutes but think it's all good now. Fingers crossed. Covered everything up and went and closed up the shop for the day. Had a beer.......

Winter returned overnight so will wait for another nice day to do the top end, but did get both tires mounted on the rims and installed on the bike today. It's a roller!

Looks like the practice runs paid off and sounds like the worst is behind you now but I did quite a bit of head scratching when it came time to put the wire loom back on and decipher that rats nest in the headlight bucket

Yeah, electrical is my weak spot anyway so not looking forward to that part. But knowing I'd have a hard time remembering where everything went I took quite a few pics along the way as I unhooked connections, took things off, etc. So hopefully it won't give me too much trouble.

Don’t get intimidated by that “nest “. Clean the wires good to clearly see the colors. The connections at the various spots on the bike connect color-to-color. That’s why it is important to get them really clean and have good light. I also take some fine sand paper rolled up to clean the connectors then spray them down good with something like CRC electrical contact cleaner. I use bulb grease on my connections and bulbs too. Yamaha made the connections plug and play just match up the colors for the most part.

Best electrical cleaner I've ever used is Caig Deoxit... Removes oxidation without sanding. Works well on switches without having to take them apart too.

I just ordered up some "Bar Keepers Friend" from a previous Mark T post. Never heard of it but now have read about it. Maybe I'll try that electrical cleaner too. Thanks for the tip.

"Best electrical cleaner I've ever used is Caig Deoxit... Removes oxidation without sanding. Works well on switches without having to take them apart too." -MarkT

I bought from a coupla Previous Owners who could have used this tip. The ones that took the main switch apart and then re-assembled it incorrectly!

Needed a nice warm indoor job today so installed the new seat onto it's base plate. Was looking at the parts breakdown to make sure I put all the hardware, dampers, etc. back in the right place and noticed a part that I don't have. I couldn't figure out what it's purpose is and whether or not it's important, or even what it's called. I was looking at the Japanese parts list at the time and not being able to read Japanese I checked CMS and Partzilla but neither of them even show it on there parts list so completely in the dark about it. Since it's not shown on the other lists I'm guessing it was never on my bike. But just curious if anyone has this part on their bike and/or knows what it does. It's number 14 in the parts list photo.