Very stiff turnover

[royhall]

I think you may be worrying too soon. If you can turn the full engine by hand on the crank your probably good to go. The kickstarter is quite high geared to spin the engine fast enough to start it. The starter shaft only turns half a revolution with a kick but spins the crank enough to fire. Most newly built four's won't turn by hand with the kicker unless your a Russian shot putter.

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[clive]

ive just rebuilt my cb500 with rebored barrels and new piston&rings, i struggled to turn engine over to start with and its still hard after 600 miles btw i'm 101/2 stone wet through

[masonmart]

Thanks gents. I have taken the top cover off, put some good cam lubricant on the mating surfaces and put it back on with the bolts toward the lower end of the recommended torque to avoid pinching the cam hard and it's much better. Probably just how it should be. I can get all 5 gears too so looks as though I may have got the assembly OK. Had a potential disaster in that I'd obviously not got the circlip on the end of the kick starter shaft in properly and as I was doing the above turnover all the springs and gears came off the shaft into the sump. Luckily just managed to reassemble it with the bike on the side via the sump.

[Nurse Julie]

 Had a potential disaster in that I'd obviously not got the circlip on the end of the kick starter shaft in properly and as I was doing the above turnover all the springs and gears came off the shaft into the sump. Luckily just managed to reassemble it with the bike on the side via the sump.

I had exactly the same thing happen to my CB550 yesterday. Had just fitted the kick start lever and Graham pushed down on it (it's on the workbench still on an engine stand) the kick start went down (yes, Graham can get the kick start down by hand on a newly rebuilt 550  )and, clatter, clatter, we heard a load of bits fall into the sump. Turned engine over onto her back, took sump pan off and the little circlip on the end had fallen off along with some other bits on the shaft. Easily rectified by putting all the bits back on and securing the circlip with some retaining gluey stuff just to make sure it doesn't come off again. If the engine had been in the frame and full of oil, I doubt we would have heard the clattering on the first kick !!!