97 Thunderbird 900 rebuild

I picked up my 1999 Legend from a colleague, dirt cheap, with identical damage after it rolled off the stand in his garage. He'd been quoted around £1500+ parts / anything found by the local independent to sort it. I got the bike for about 25% of market value and rode it home in 1st after using mole grips on the stub of the shaft to knock it into gear.

I drained the oil and got a secondhand change shaft for about £25. I took the sprocket cover and sprocket off to get plenty of clearance, made a spatter / dirt shield out of some heavy aluminium foil sheet and fitted that so the change shaft protruded.

I ground the end of the old shaft down at an angle, then cut the new one just inboard of the spline section so I had a good Vee shape between them. Clamped both pieces in line using angle iron and 90 degree oriented clamps on each section to keep it as straight as possible. Fired up the trusty arc welder and did multiple weld / grind layers to meld the 2 sections. Ended up with slight kick upwards but only about 5-10 degrees and didn't affect cover fitment of change operation. Must've got a but of inclusion at the bottom though as 5 years later the weld failed by cracking from the bottom and folding the lever up 90 degrees on an upchange.

Did the same trick again, but this time flat butted the sections, with a 3mm wide slot ground into each shaft piece, going about 10mm deep. Used a 3mm thick piece of stainless sheet 20mm wide to make a plate that slotted snuggly in there, tapped into engagement with a mallet on the end of the shaft. Used the new TIG kit to then weld the sheet to each shaft section front and rear, then welded around the circumference of the butt joint. That repair is now 5+ years old and still seems solid.
 
Outstanding work. TUP
 
Excellent!!!!
 
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