Auke/Tom/Ted (via PM),
Thanks for all the replies - gives one hope!
Since my last post, I have tried slacking off the two bolts at the front lower that tie the engine to the frame at the front; unfortunately there is no obvious play in there (those bolts pass through both the frame and the engine without any backets to provide some "play") - I have not tried slacking off at the back because if I understand this right, the engine will pivot on that bolt along with the swingarm (and it will be released all together and end up dropping out?!)
There is no point in trying the triangular plates in any other way - the bolt spacings across the frame are slightly different to the spacings from those bolts to the one in the rocker cover.

I don't have a decent car jack, trolley or otherwise, so I will look into that, borrow one or whatever - is there any alternative? I have tried levering a long-handled screwdriver against the frame and passed through the hole in the middle of the triangular plate so that the plate is pulled downward- this gets the bolt nearly in line, but not quite, by using up the small amount of play in the 2 bolts that go through the frame.


As a completely separate thing, I am not sure that the kickstart is quite as free as it used to be - it does not seem to move through the full range of movement to the bottom of its stroke - is this possible, or am I now paranoid?!!


What do you all think?

Dave

__________________
Dave