Looking for a helper

I consider myself to be mechanically inclined yet I'm nervous about my most recent issue. I'm fairly confident that I had a failure of the Primary Chain Guide. I was pulling away from the stop light in front of my fire station and I couldn't get the bike out of 1st gear. I am fairly confident that the chain guide is my issue. I sucessfully cleaned my carbs a few weeks ago after I checked valve clearances and did a running sync of the carbs. I was so proud of myself. I rode the bike around for a little over a week and now this. The bike is parked in the garage at work until I go get it with my fathers truck. I'll probably go get it tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about splitting the case to get to the chain guide. I've never attempted anything this in depth before. Any tips, hints or ideas?

 

Sometimes just a piece of the guide breaks off & gets into the selector forks, so it might be just whip the case off & remove the piece of plastic, I know this has happened to some of the members, you might get lucky.

 

If I pull the cover and remove the piece that's stuck (hopefully) how long am I flirting with disaster before the rest of the guide self destructs and the chain tears a hole in the engine case? I know...it probably sounds a little drastic but I absolutely love my XJ and I don't really want to see it come to that. Honestly, if I pull the side cover and there is a visible piece of the chain guide, I'm only going to risk riding the bike the 2.3 miles home and then it's going to sit until I can get the parts from chacal and tear it down. I hate the thought of not repairing the issue and riding around with it in the back of my mind.

 

A tickleish question, but that is quite a major tear down, I think you can leave the jugs & head in place, get the mill out of the frame & invert it.

 

there's a little pipe that takes oil to the alternator bearing that gets beat up if the guide goes altogether, i doubt the chain would ever break or go through the case

 

I pulled the side of the case that the shifter is on while the motor was still in the bike. I looked through the top oil gallery and there it was. a chunk of hard plastic with metal tabs that look like they held it to the rest of the chain guide. I now know without a shadow of a doubt what my problem is. I buttoned the case back up and it shifts fine, sounds fine, runs fine. I'm going to take it easy and drive it home this afternoon when I get out of work. I have allready got the information for the parts that I need to do the jobof replacing the guide and I plan on ordering them later this afternoon or tomorrow. I can't tell you guys how glad I am that this website helped me diagnose my xj and make me a happy guy!

 

Check the starter clutch body for wear & CRACKS, never a better time to replace that sucker.

 

what makes the starter clutch so suseptable to failure? Is it also made of plastic like the primary chain guide? I don't have the bike torn apart yet. I am waiting for a few days off in a row to start the process. Then I plan on making a list of what I need and getting ahold of chacal with my order.

 

No, it's made of bronze or something like it & it has week spots.

 

I appreciate all the input. I will be splitting the case this afternoon and I will let everybody know how I make out and what I fuind when I get in there. Wish me luck