Kickstart

[mike the bike]

I don't get it.  I must have fitted the kickstart shaft a dozen times over the years but I can't get the spring to go on.  I'm doing something wrong here, but what?

The shaft end stop rests against a lump in the casting about the 5 o'clock.  The inside of the spring rests against the back of this endstop, while the outside of the spring locates in a place in the casting about the 11 o'clock position.

With no tension on the spring, it only needs about 6mm to locate the outer of the spring in the casting - which isn't enough tension.

I tried tensioning the spring another 360 degrees (with much swearing at the shite on the radio), but now there's way too much tension and the outer of the spring is being pulled half out of the slot.

Can anyone shed some light on what the F is going on.  The manual is no bloody help either.

[Laverda Dave]

Not being funny here but you haven't put the spring on back to front have you? I had a similar problem with mine (after I had put the clutch cover back on!). I think it was because I had the flat on the shaft out by 180degrees. It took me three attempts to find it!

[mike the bike]

I thought of that but only fits one way, anything else just isn't feasible.  I'm wondering if the spring has gone weak giving the impression that it's not fitted correctly when it is.

[Laverda Dave]

I'm trying to think how I fixed mine Mike. The kick-start appeared to be fine when initially assembled but then went so slack after a couple of goes it just sat at the bottom of the stroke with no tension on the spring. I seem to remember the U shaped spring on the shaft itself had moved around on the shaft (it moves on the ratchet teeth). This in turn put the square type peg that pushes against the crankcases in the wrong position even though it looked and felt fine. It was only when I went to try it I felt it go really slack against the spring.
Are you sure the spring didn't move around on the ratchet?
The bright side is now you've slept on the problem overnight it will go straight back together today 

[mike the bike]

I rummaged through my boxes of spares and found another spring.   I'll see how that goes after I've had a bacon sarny and another coffee.

[Laverda Dave]

Sitting on the train travelling up to Halifax to collect my new but S/H VFR800 I remember now what was wrong with my kickstart. It was the U shaped bit in the end of the shaft where it locates in the crankcase. When I assembled it and the spring etc all was fine, nice a tight and full spring tension. However after a couple of kicks on the lever all the spring tension had gone and the lever didn't return. After a lot of head scratching I compared the S/H shaft with the knackered original (the kickstart splines were non existing on the original shaft and I bought a S/H from the US. On the s/h shaft the U shaped spring was turning on the shaft thereby allowing the whole shaft to turn independent of the spring and losing all tension. When I compared the s/h shaft with the original I found the U piece was firmly held on the shaft and didn't turn on it. I swapped the S/H U piece with the the one from the original and hey presto problem solved!
Hope this helps Mike.

[mike the bike]

If you mean that L shaped piece of wire that fits through a hole in the crank case, that is supposed go be able to rotate.

[mike the bike]

Problem solved.   It was the spring that had gone weak.   See pic.  The worn one is on the left.   Anyway,  it's all back together now, just need oil and petrol and an MOT.