Kick starter issues

[Knowledge]

My kick-starter is bad. It feels like a few k/s teeth are missing off the first gear and my foot hits the floor without turning the engine over (clutch is good), and then a few moments later. Every so often, it will work as it should.

I am as confident as I can be that the piston is deploying correctly. I have replaced the piston with a new MB item but I still get that missing-teeth sensation.

It is a Clo5e box from Rayspeed. There is a bit of damage on the kick-start first gear where the k/s piston engages, but it is far from wrecked. However, I must conclude that there is enough damage to cause this issue.

Has anyone tried surface grinding the k/s teeth of the first gear to restore them back to good order?

[Adam_Winstone]

Are you sure that the kickstart piston is sufficient?

There are lots of reasons why it may not be, including that some shafts do not have sufficient slot depth, and/or the end of the grub screw (pinion?) catching on the casing and stopping it short.

[Knowledge]

Hi Adam,

It is awkward to measure the depth of these components and calculate just how close things sit relative to one another, but I think I have done it. The kick starter is less than a millimetre from the first gear, so the piston barely need to deploy to make contact with the k/s teeth on the side of that gear. If there was sufficient room, the piston could deploy more than 5mm, which shows that the slot in the k/s shaft is deep enough.

If there as an issue with the reference pin or slot, I would have an issue with every kick, but I don’t. Some kicks are good.

The slot in the k/s shaft could be a bit too wide, allowing the piston to rotate slightly. This might mean that the two teeth on the piston do not present themselves correctly to the teeth on the side of the first gear. I think I have seen some o/s reference pins for sale somewhere (Torbay?). Perhaps the o/s reference pins were manufactured to overcome this very problem.

Martin

[Covboy]

Rather than calculate could you measure ?
Could you put a ball of blu-tack on the ks piston and then tighten up the casing
Take it off and hopefully it will have been compressed ? This would then represent the actual gap and you might be able to see how the teeth really line up ?
Never tried it just an idea !

[Knowledge]

Thanks CB. I had exactly the same thoughts about using plasticine but lacked the plasticine to take the measurements.

I am confident that I have the correct measurement (rather than a calculation) and the piston should deploy easily.


This only leaves me to worry about any damage to the first gear k/s teeth and the over-wide slot for the piston reference pin.