Advice needed on clutch drum play

[babzog]

I was reassembling the clutch and chain on my son's Arctic Cat ZR120 last night and noticed that the only way I can get the clutch sprocket, tensioner sprocket and rear sprocket to line up, is to remove the snap ring at the end of the clutch. Otherwise, the clutch sprocket is out by the width of the tooth. Removing the snap ring allows the clutch drum to float inward enough to align things properly. My concern is that now, the drum has about 1/8" of play, back and forth along the bearing. Is this acceptable or should I reinstall the snap ring and accept the alignment being off by a tooth width (roughly 1/8")?

What if I trimmed 1/8" from the end of the bushing to remove much of the free play?

[Jim Donovan]

That is fine leave the snap ring off. It is not needed and once the shoes go out to the drum it turns as one piece of steel. If you read all the post in this section I talk about leaving it off so you can make quick center changes for various engagements.

[babzog]

So that 1/8" of play is okay then... great! Many thanks!

I was all prepared to chuck it in my BIL's lathe and trim that down... saved me an hour and a lot of worry.