Damn it's been a while. In the end, won ugly. Had the thing sitting in the freezer for about two weeks - not entirely because I wanted to get it really, really cold but more so because I forgot all about it. Life/work/summer(ish) getting in the way and that. Had at it with a bench vise and big chisel and pried the damn thing off. Bearing still spins cleanly, and with it removed I could finally get at the once-rubber dampers in the primary gear housing -
Good thing too, one of them looked all chewed up -
- and all of them were completely plasticized and cracked -
OEM originals are rare as pope shit but there's a guy over on cb1100f.net who makes perfect replicas. That'll do me.
I need to switch out some of the lower case main bearings (2 really) as they're showing copper - I'll replace all 5. Not the upper main bearings though (good plan?) as they look fine. All the colours have worn off the bearings themselves so that's that out the window, and I'm a little unsure as to where to look for the inked markings on the crank. Would the inked markings be on the 5 silver coloured parts of the crank (the part that sits in the bearings), or on the lobes? I can't see diddly.
I do however have it on good authority that replacing the bearings with the loosest replacements (in this case, bearings with a yellow marking) will work just fine - better looser than tighter. Also, the difference between the different coloured bearings is really fractional apparently, so replacing all 5 lower main bearings with yellows should - I'm assured - be fine. Anyone done this?