Repairing a kick starter shaft

[Honda Al]

Hi all,

Has anybody had experience with having to repair a kickstarter shaft that has had the splines chewed off?

It's on a SL100 so electric isn't an option.

Interested if it's possible without having to split the cases and replace the whole component.

Many thanks, Alan


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[hairygit]

It can be bodged to work, but damaged splines are a pain, the only cure is replacement, and yes, it'll almost certainly be a full strip to split the cases as they are vertically split rather than horizontal on the bigger Hondas.

[mike the bike]

That happened to mine.  I bought another shaft from the breakers from a different model and, with a bit of turning and a bit of brazing, repaired the 400four one.

[matthewmosse]

I've had some luck repacing just the leaver on one cb500, the shat and original leaver were worn, and the splines would not grip making a kickstart an inpossibiliy. A spare leaver with less wear sorted it for a further 100,000 miles with a lot of kickstart use as I was running extra load on the battery so tended to try to save the battery.
I have seen plenty of smaller bikes where the kickstarter has simply been welded onto the shaft to resolve either stripped splines or a snapped shaft. To be fair it did work on every example I've seen, but it is a brutal and ugly repair, and come rebuild time its going to be a case of cut it off with the grinder and replace, but if that 'fix' is needed then the parts are going to need replacement anyway so really the only downside is its damned ugly and a cutting disk on a grinder will be required come rebuild.

[philward]

Just a thought - if you don't want the proper repair solution (replacing and stripping), could you drill and tap kickstart lever and drill a few mm into the shaft - effectively pinning the lever to the shaft - in addition to the normal clamp.
Phil

[Honda Al]

Thanks guys. Given me something to think about.

I was wondering the same about 'pinning' it as well, but didn't know if that would weaken the shaft and cause it to break even more.


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[philward]

I was thinking more about only drilling into the shaft a few mm - so you get a 'grub screw' type effect. This shouldn't weaken the actual shaft too much

[Seabeowner]

A lesson learned for me to check splined shafts when dismantling:
After three weeks stripping the 500 to replace the primary chain and a few other bits in the bottom end and inspecting the box for any problems I went to re-install the kickstart lever and if flops around on the splines like a drunken sailor. The splines at the far end taper away. To cap it all I have two spare kickstart shafts lying around with far better splines and I sold my spare kickstart on fleabay a few weeks ago.
Does anyone have a kickstart knuckle (the bit that fits the splines) that I can maybe butcher to get me through a year?

[Honda Al]

This is a picture of the offending article




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[Johnwebley]

can you widen the slot in the K/start lever ?

  then maybe it might tighten on the shaft more

[Colonial-Clive (yindi)]

I would fit the kick start in position and the drill in at the pinch point to creat a key way it may take a bit of fiddling but should work.