My advise on the balancer is to "leave it operational". Disconnected the chain on one i borrowed when new in "74 cos "we wanted max power & less flywheel effect" [wrong] bloody soon hooked it back up [before the boss found out or went to ride his bike & would've found out straight away!!] vibrated annoyingly & did notice the less flywheel effect too but turned a nice motor into a horrible one. Damn short stroke too for a 500 [70mm] which might be why they revved pretty hard & came on hard at about 1/3 throttle, don't lean it off much from std or she'll seize for sure, especially if you lean off the slide needle to much, it'll seize when you roll it back from a full song run. Left ours stock std & no problems but numerous guys tried different needle & jet combo's & i suppose smaller main jets & everyone suffered seizing. Were trying to no doubt overcome the needle rich blubberyess but [i think] when you're racing your either on full song or shut off [sort of] but not cruising on the needle as such so isn't noticeable like when you're cruising up the paddock. Anyway--long winded way of saying -- be careful. Cheers. ps, all the above stories are umm, hell, close to 40 years ago [is that right-add it again] Now, if i can only fit a 90mm piston in my RT2 without the fins falling off!! [same 70mm stroke].