Son has his 583 in pieces on the work bench, brass rotary drive gear is stripped. Question, how does the shaft that supports the gear slide out of the case?

Thanx!

There is a c-clip around the seal on the rv side. Once that is removed as well as the water pump impeller the shaft can be tapped out from the waterpump side.

Check the coolant pump for any base gasket material lying around it. When they strip, usually only three reasons:

Something stopped the coolant pump, Something stopped the rotary valve or the injection pump jammed. When reinstalling the shaft, use some tightly wound electrical tape well greased around the coolant pump end's threads and step to protect the oil cavity and coolant seals when pushing the shaft back in. Grease up the rotary end seal too.

Thanks guys. I had a look but didn't spot the c-clip, we'll look again tommorrow.

As a side note, gear stripped less than 200 kilometers after a set of new pistons so inspection of the base gasket is inorder for sure.