I’ve had this Benelli 250 SuperSport (1973) for a few years. It only had 800 miles on it when I got it, but always had some shifting issues. Just recently I found out that the reason it was parked was a broken shift part- replaced. I tried quite a few things and never got it right, just better. So decided to pop the engine out and fix it. There is one bushing the siftshaft rides in that was damaged. I think perhaps someone didn’t get it seated right and then jammed the cover on or something. I was having trouble finding that one, but bought some oiled bronze and will make it.
I also though from the manual that the cases needed to be split to replace it. But turns out it can be tapped out without doing so. But I’m going to split it and make sure all the shift forks, drum and all the bearings are good. I will almost certainly just replace all the bearings.
The flywheel was a bugger to get off (as I mentioned in another thread). I tried all the tricks I knew, John suggested an air hammer- I didn’t have one so brought the engine out to his place. It didn’t come off with the air hammer, but after a LOT of heat and the factory puller- it finally slowly came off.
Next I needed to pull the primary drive gear. I saw a NOS factory puller cheap, so bought it. Got it today and it worked great. That gear was on there tight. I didn’t have anything for the cam gear, so I made a puller and it came off pretty easily.