BMW circlip thread, please contribute!

[Mr. Ron]

Hello. I've copied this thread from the Advrider forum. I would apreciate everybody's input

Hello. I would like to start a new thread on the BMW circlip issue. I responded to a previous post: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188328 ... i stated that the circlip saves the bearing if the shaft isn't shimmed properly. I was corrected by Anton Largiader, who posted some very informative photographs showing the output shaft having slipped away from the bearing shoulder. (Thanx for the photo's Anton! :clap ) Since then i've delved deeper into this issue and i have a few questions: First of all, if you have the circlip installed, what stops the entire bearing from pulling out of the housing and causing the same linear force? I supose that if the shaft were allowed to slip out of the input-side bearing, it would transmit all the force to the bearing on the shaft side, but with a circlip installed, maybe it divides the load between the two? Is installing the circlip the answer, or is the transmition destined to fail regardless of what you do due to bad design? What if the out-put bearing was changed to a thrust- type bearing?
Ultimately, i,m curious what changes did BMW make to the oilheads to eleviate this problem. Is it the helical angle of the gear, better bearings, stronger housing? Lets amagine for a moment someone (like me ) had an oportunity to play around in his garage and build a new airhead transmition from scratch, what would you do diferent to solve this problem? Do you think it's posible to use the oilhead gearbox internals inside a custom airhead housing? From what i can tell, they are basicly the same idea, just improved gears, bearings and a diferent housing. I would like to here all your opinions on this subject, and maybe we can together create the ultimate airhead transmition :freaky