Kickstarting help please.
 

Hello all,

I have an 86 IVJ, kick and electric start. Electric works fine but i'd like to have the knack of kickstarting for those flat battery/knackered starter days. I had an XL500 with manual decompressor and could start that with no problems. With the auto-decompressor on the XT how do I know when the engine is at or has just gone past tdc so I can give her a proper kick without fear of breaking my ankle? She's an easy starter, i'd just like to know that i'm not fluking it everytime I use the kickstart!

I have a 85 kick only bike, got lots of practice. If the decompression cable is properly adjusted the engine should not kick back, ive also noticed that almost always the engine comes to rest on the compression stroke. Just a slow half kick to set the decompression and a full kick to start.

hello,

the 1VJ does not kick back, so dont be scarred of breaking your ankle.

kick it slowly until you hear the click sound from automatic decompression. than you have the right spot ....

my XL600R was a monster to kick start ...

enjoy kicking ;-)

mika

1vj
 

Hi,

Well be carefull anyway, if decomp cable is broken or badly adjusted you can have the kick return, happened a friend of mine a former XT500 addict.
Start adjusting it.
Kicking is easy on 1VJ, cold=no throttle warm=half throttle, depends of your carb settings of course.
You can also engage n1, grab the bike, reverse a bit until you feel compression on back wheel...a bike is not made for reversing, right! so when your in compression backwards, you can push forward slightly and start or give a little kick push..it will fire up nice.

Matt

Not only on carb settings but also on the model. Not sure about the 1VJ but my 3AJ hates half throttle when warm - it floods immediately which usually results in major cursing, a cigarette, and a sore leg ;)
There's no real secret to it. As already mentioned do it very slowly until you hear a click sound then go bananas. If it doesn't fire up after the first kick (which is normal, sometimes it takes me three to four times to get it started but that's ok) repeat the procedure. And don't forget the choke when the engine is cold, mine refuses to fire up without choke when it's cold and refuses to fire up with choke when it's warm.

Many thanks for all the tips and advice, i'll be kicking this weekend! I have read in some other threads things along the lines of "you can start this engine with your hand if it's all set up properly" Is this an exageration? Or should I be able to go through a full swing of the kickstart with my "strong" arm? Perhaps my auto decompress cable does need adjusting. If so, some guidelines for getting this right would be much appreciated as i'm waiting for a cheap clymer manual to appear out of thin air!

In theory it should work, however I have not given this a try yet. What I have successfully tried was kickstarting my XL185 with my right hand though, therefore it should work with a XT600 as well. Maybe I'll give it a try someday...