G1 Questions - Transmission BackLash

[pcbye]

Greetings: I am new to the forum. I am contemplating purchasing a 1983 G1 from my neighbor. It started to clunk so he just went and bought a new one. He is not big on maintence so several things are suspect.

I think the actual clunking maybe the engine missing. I puledl the plug and found the cap not screwed on the the plug wire. I cut the wire, put a little silicon grease on it, screwed it back togather and it seems much better. I will try a new plug and do a general tune up and see if that improves some more. It starts right up no problem and goes down the road. Once the clunk (miss) stop just above idle, it cruises just fine -- no noise. Cold blooded beast though.

The thing that concerns me is the back lash on the driven clutch. How much should there be there. It seems you can rotate it back and forth about 1/4 turn or more before it feels like it is actually rotating the wheels?

I will pop the plugs on the gear box tonight and see if there is actually any oil in it. It just seems like a lot of play. Does anybody have an idea what the back lash should be, or is there a spec on this?

BTW: He want $200.00 for it. So if I can get a couple of bugs out of it, I think it may be worth it.

Best regards;

Peter