Motorcycle Repair: Trans and rear hub interchange on vt500, rear hub, bill silver

Question
Hi Bill, I have a 1985 shadow 500 with a v-twin. The 83-84 Ascot has the same driveline but with bigger wheels and supposedly shorter gearing. Can an Ascot gearbox be swapped into a Shadow? I'm pretty sure the final drive hub can be swapped. I had an Ascot and the gearing was MUCH better than the Shadow. Joe

Answer
Joe, I haven't heard of anyone attempting this swap before, but the parts are indeed quite similar, based on the same motor series. You might want to do a little more research by going to the www.cmsnl.com site and comparing the part numbers between the two models. If there is just a difference between the final drive, then just swap the gears back there, instead of a motor removal, teardown and reassembly again.

Bill Silver