Did not know that on the gears , i always understood (from here and other sites , though i never confirmed this myself) that all the gears are too wide and the gear set would not fit between the cases for 02-08 450R's , so Trail Tech makes a Wide Ratio gear set for the 450R to somewhat mimic the X gearing , because everyone said you can't interchange the gears from one to the other without machining the gears and shaft
http://www.crfsonly.com/catalog/product ... ts_id/3699 ....anyway
For the de-compressor gap , 1mm would make a difference in kicking pressure , so give it a try , nothing to lose
Yes you should be getting lots of spark's , not just 1 single spark , so that is what i would say is the main symptom causing the issue , so you need to keep troubleshooting the electrical system , it could be the short out cooked the CDI/ECM or the stator or the coil , i just recently (last fall) replaced all 3 on my 02R because of similar symptoms , the bike kept getting harder and harder to start , and when riding it would just die out of the blue if i was at a low rpm , drove me nuts , because it went from running perfect to not running within 2 rides with no shorting or anything to set it off , it just worked , then it didn't ..
Where i live Cell service stops about a mile down the road , we can't get Cable TV , or Cable or DSL internet , everything is Satellite here and a land line phone that you cant even get internet on because the lines are so old you can't even get 56k , 12k-24k is the best they say you might get , i am 10 miles from any kind of town, completely surrounded by mountains covered with sagebrush , if you filled in the opening in the hills where the road to here is , you could make a lake , so i understand your reception sorrow
lol ... but on the plus side , i can go hunting right in my yard , as we have plenty of Elk ,Deer Bear,Mountain Lion ,Bobcats , Wolves , Coyotes ,Pheasants, Quail ,also Ducks and Geese on the 7 acre pond, plus Bass in the pond , (when the otters don't eat them first) all around the 100+ acres i live on