500 rebuild by ATV newb

First gear is gone on my Foreman. ’07 model with 1200 hours. Engine ran fine other than first gear.

Everything has to come apart to remedy the situation. I have the shop manual, plenty of tools and experience with engines and sequential gearboxes on racecars. No experience on bike engines.

I have the engine out, the cylinder and piston off and the front case cover off.

So far the piston rings are out of limit.

My questions are:

1) What "gotchas" should I look out for.

2) I haven’t spec’d the piston. If the piston is good should I just replace the rings? Should I hone the cylinder?

Any suggestions/recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks.