Bottom End Rebuild and Opportunities for Upgrades?

[HAGARMOTO]

Hi guys! Hope you are all keeping well.

Ok so, here's the deal. About 3 months ago, Helga my beloved 97' took a slow, but hard fall. This was on a horrendous camber which was also greasy at approximately 5-10mph in first gear (engine braking) as I approached a 90 degree left hand turn...I turned, but the bike went straight (camber+grease+old tyres+wet)

I fell off, but to my amazement, as I looked up the bike had come to a stop and was leaning on its Foot board and did not go over BUT it was now in NEUTRAL and ticking over...very confused at the time but chalked it up to a bit of luck an made it home no issues, MEGA RELIEF. It did, however, cause the underslung footpeg/board bracket to flex and crack the stator case! A somewhat expensive but not the end of the world result of the incident, I'll take the hit and just be thankful the bike didn't go over and or cause serious injury to myself.

So I checked and replaced the stator and the aluminium casing with one I found online (like gold dust those things here in the UK!) Ran some continuity checks and voltage checks on the charging system against the workshop manual to ensure there was no underlying issues and she was purring like a kitten again within no time. NICE.

Fast forward 3 weeks, a new set of Avon cobra chromes and some amazing ride outs with friends, covering a mere 500 miles or so in that time and I start to feel a light tapping in my left foot board on the way home from a ride...a very faint but definite tapping, like the back side of a spoon tapping the sole of my boot...then it stops...I keep riding and it appears again and before I even had the chance to pull over the bike went POP/BANG/BANG and died. At this point on the side of the road, I am 99% that whatever has happened the rectifier/battery have blown from whatever the issue was as now, there is no power at all yet the fuses are all in tact...etc, fast forward to the bike being on the bench and I remove the side casings to start a general inspection and I find CHUNKS of metal in the oil, ranging in size from a grain of rice to a penny.

The inside of the stator chrome case is scored and marked in a circular motion so I am now thinking that a piece of this metal, made it's way in to the stator/generator side and ground it'self between the stator and engine casing shortly after acting like a washing machine which I think would have been the 'tapping' I felt in my foot.

Fast forward a few more weeks, the engine is now out, the cylinders are off and I am just starting to disassemble the bottom end. So far, there is nothing apparently damaged or obviously broken from the top-side view, have an endoscope camera also but cant see anything damaged at this point either so I am thinking it must be gear box/transmission related.

My question/s are. At this point, with a full engine rebuild now in place, is there any MODS you pros would recommend? I have read about changing the gearing slightly I believe using a VL1500 Pinion etc and of course, there is the 1500 head swap but I am mainly thinking of the bottom end. Also if there is anything in the bottom end that at 20k miles you would recommend being upgraded or serviced/replaced etc while it is in the SPLIT state. I will of course be replacing all rubbers and gaskets for brand new OEM or NOS where I can and bearings will likely need to be done as a point of caution due to filings still being in the bottom end.

If you have any thoughts on what could of happened during that mini spill to have caused these chunks of metal to be in the bottom end please do shout them out. Its not cylinder sleeves/cylinders etc these have all been removed and checked at this point. Checked the clutch basket which is now on the bench also, and have checked the stator and its casings etc nope, looking clean apart from the new scratches on the inside of the chrome casing.

One last interesting thing is that the chunks of metal found, are attracted to a Magnet so they are not aluminum engine casings, but will crush in to powder when squeezed in a vice and said powder is quite fine and almost sparkly...perhaps the oil pump underside magnet came unstuck in the mini spill??? I don't know, I will however keep you updated in this thread.

Thanks in advance!
H.

[navigator]

Perhaps the stator pickup coils decomposed???

[hillsy v2]

Perhaps the stator pickup coils decomposed???

This ^^

Pieces are magnetic....crush to powder.....sparkly....

Sounds like bits of a rotor magnet.