Hello all,

I'm hoping someone can bail me out of a slight problem relating to reassembly of the kickstarter on my 43F 1986 xt 600.

I stripped down the kick assembly to replace the main shaft as the exposed end was quite chewed up from an ill fitting kick lever.

When removing the gears on the shaft I neglected to note their orientation.

The important part in this assembly is, shaft/rachet wheel (smaller kick gear with finger sticking up)orientation.

My Clymer manual states:

for XT :align the dot on the end of the kickstarter shaft with the dot on the ratchet wheel and install the ratchet wheel. Make sure this alignment is correct!

My problem comes about because I have an alignment mark on the shaft but none on the ratchet wheel?????

for TT the manual states:
align the dot on the end of the kickstarter shaft with the straght surface on the ratchet wheel. Make sure the alignment is correct!

So for the experts out there who have taken these things apart sucessfully.

Is it ok for me to apply the the above stated TT alignment proceedure to my XT???? Or will it go boom the first time I kick the bike to life?

If I can't apply the TT rules above. How can I ensure the alignment is correct?


A caution to others:
I had never taken one of these apart before so mistakenly marked the two Kick gears in an attempt to orient them. This was wrong. The important orientation is between the shaft and the smaller gear with the finger. This only becomes an issue if the parts are not punch marked from the factory as they are supposed to be.

Thanks to the experts for their assistance in getting me on track.

Cheers,

Pawlie

Well I dug up a photo from when I was disassembling the motor.

I shifted the offending gear to various positions on the shaft and compared it to the photo. I'm 99% sure I have it right. Same alignment for the TT as described above. If it goes boom I'll report my findings.

Good thing I took some photos while disassembling the engine!

Pawlie

Hi Pawlie - sorry to drag an old post up, but do you recall if you fixed this OK? I've just replaced the ratchet cog with the finger, but I didn't realise there was an alignment so have managed to destroy the kick start guide assembly.

I can see what looks like a tiny notch on both the broken ratchet wheel and the replacement and they're in the same place, so I'm guessing that's the marking there. I can't find any evidence of any markings on the shaft though - did you find anything?

The mark is on the very end of the shaft.

Hi JJ, thanks for your response, on taking the shaft apart (removing the circlip and washer holding the ratchet wheel), I've found a definite dot stamped on the end of one of the shaft splines the ratchet wheel sits on. However, I'm not at all confident that the inconsequential looking mark I've lined it up with on the outside of the ratchet wheel is correct.

My disassembly photos don't accurately show the alignment, so I'm now looking at photos of starter mechanisms for sale on ebay to try and copy those...

As far as I can see this alignment is all about making sure the decomp tab is correctly timed on the other side of the idler gear right? So worst case, it could be done via trial and error?

I should mention that this is a 2003 TT600R, but the kick start mechanism is identical in the parts catalogue.

Its been a while since I messed with one but I thought there was that dot on the end of the shaft or spline and one on the racket gear that did line up with the flat surface on the piece sticking out, might have been on the opposite side where you don't think to look, can't remember that for sure. It's the piece that stops the lever all the way up IIRC and it makes sure enough tension is on the spring. I do have one in pieces at home, I can take a pic of the assembly then to help .

I've checked and rechecked both the broken and current ratchet gear which are identical and can't for the life of me find any meaningful markings, bar the small notch which is on both at the bottom of the longest flat side (the stop pawl has three flat sides). You can just about see it to the right of the crack here: http://postimg.org/image/tdxsoyadh/

On the shaft, I'm pretty sure the obviously stamped dot on the end of the ratchet spline is the correct reference there. But if you were able to take a photo of a shaft and ratchet gear correctly aligned - that would be a great help, thank you!

installed in very old and used motor,

,

Thanks that's a great help, from the top photo it looks as though the dot on the spline is aligned with the left hand straight edge, per the TT instructions above as well. I'll do that and all should be well, thanks again for your help and time, very much appreciated!