Things didn't work out for me to get down to Olympia to crack open the transmission and deliver the vlave covers so I went ahead and shipped the covers and ordered the tools. They showed up on Wednesday and work a treat. gordonmessmer came over on Thursday and we pulled the transmission apart. All the gears look pretty darned good, including the kickstarter sector gear which frequently has bad wear on one end. I managed to knock out the seals but don't yet have the kickstart lever off. Once I get that done I'll take the casing to the local transmission shop for cleaning in their industrial wash.

Over the weekend I took a look at the rear brake shoes. I've got new brake compound for them so I drilled out the rivets and stripped off the old compound being careful to keep it went to prevent dust. Unfortunately what I found is really annoying. At some point in the past someone has replaced the brake compound but in doing so drilled out the holes that the rivets go through. Unfortunately this means that my rivets won't hold the new compound on. I've got a few options but I've not decided on which I want to use just yet. Ideally I'd get someone to weld up the holes so I could re-drill them to the right size.