Front sprocket removal z500!?

Hey guys! Do i need some kind of tool to get this first bit if the axel off? Because I can't slide this it off anyway I try to do it!!

First, let me say I have never seen a countersprocket like that. All the ones I have seen were held in place by a nut.

Having said that, it appears that you would use a gear puller to remove it. See images below. The puller will have a pointed central bolt that pushes on the center of the shaft and 2 smaller bolts (red arrows) that thread into the sprocket holes (yellow arrows). When you tighten the center bolt on the puller it should draw the sprocket off the shaft. Ed

It should not need a puller. Try by hand first. It should just pull off easily.

Those two threaded holes are not for a puller. That sprocket should have had a retaining clip holding it on. Those two holes were for the small bolts that hold the retaining clip in place. This is how the 500/550's are.

The retaining clip is a small piece of metal with a big hole with teeth. The teeth line up on the shaft, then the clip is rotated in that groove so the teeth no longer line up with the splines. This prevents the sprocket from coming off of the shaft. Then the two bolts hold the clip from rotating so the clip can't come off.

It's a great, simple system that eliminates the possibility of engine torque causing the sprocket from coming off, as happens so often on the type that uses the big nut. It's also lighter.

So if the sprocket has a little looseness on the shaft, you just have to wiggle it so the spline teeth on the groove don't catch the teeth on the sprocket. If it feels solidly stuck, it's just grease or rust holding it in place.

If you use a puller, there is a chance the sprocket teeth will catch the shaft teeth at the groove, so you have to make sure it can wiggle a little.

Everyone I've seen, the sprocket can just fall off once the clip is removed.

The clip is already off at this point. But the shaft is way bigger then the sprocket itself. I have loosen the chain and tried to wiggle the sprocket of, but it's a no go. Using a puller won't help either I think because off the size difference. So I gave up at this point!

loudhvx - thanks for the correction. Ed

I find it hard to believe that the shaft is larger than the sprocket...........how else would Kawasaki have gotten the sprocket on in the first place? There has to be something holding it up from coming off. Would it help to remove the chain completely?

Is the end mushroomed from somebody beating on it?

PLUMMEN wrote: Is the end mushroomed from somebody beating on it?

That's a possibility. But it should still have a tiny bit of wiggle play.

Is the end mushroomed from somebody beating on it?

That drive sprocket wants to go AWOL but with no retainer to stop it is doing the beating I guess, even on a hardened steel spline. Your sprocket is disposable -the drive shaft spline needs to be kept.


Everyone I've seen, the sprocket can just fall off once the clip is removed.

true, done loads of these and was doing one today actually. Maybe the mushrooming saved his neck, better get stuck on the shaft then fly off at speed.

GPz1100 variants has a revised locking arrangement, Yamaha deny having a problem here but they 'coincidentally' uprated their sprocket retaining nut thread on some models, 600 diversions in particular.