Kickstart Repair

The repair to the kickstart was a bit more involved. On this there is a foot-piece which pivots on a boss formed on the main shaft of the pedal.

The problem was caused by the “eye” of the footpiece being worn. This had allowed it to slide against the limit stops so these were worn as well but fortunately there was very little wear on the boss the footpiece pivoted on so it was decided not to worry about the boss.

The “eye” first had to be bored out until it was a true bore, simplest way here would have been to clamp it on the table of a vertical mill and clean it out with a milling cutter.

Not having a mill I clamped it in a 4-jaw chuck on the lathe. To get it centred I cheated a bit by clamping a bit of 1/2inch bar stock in the tailstock, putting it through the “eye” and clamping the footpiece in the chuck using that as a guide, being a trusting soul though it was checked before commencing work.

In Lathe

Centring the pedal in the 4-jaw, The mandrel is purely to aid in this.

Once the footpiece was clamped up it was soon bored out true and enough oversize to take a thinwall bush.

To fit the bush it was frozen with an aerosol blaster and dropped into the “eye”.

As intended it proved too tight to fit onto the boss and so was reamed to a slightly stiff fit and then the boss burnished to ease the fit.

Next job was to make good the limit stops which had worn angled.

Footpiece

Foot-piece opened out and bushed.
The limit stop has been welded up but not yet reshaped

These were filed back to square. This meant however that in the “at use” position the footpiece was angled backwards so the stop on the pedal was built up with weld and then shaped using a Dremel grinder so that it stopped just before the right angle position and the stops were making full contact.

Doing this means that as pressure is put on the footpiece your foot will tend to slide in towards the pedal shaft rather than out and off the end of the pedal, something that is not to be recommended when using any kickstart, never mind one on a 600cc, long-stroke, single.

The foot-piece was assembled onto it’s shaft but when the end nut was fitted in place there was more vertical play than I liked, the nut was bottoming out on the end of the boss before it reached the top of the footpiece.

This was got round by making up a recessed washer to go between the nut and the end of the boss that would take up this play and once this was fitted the kickstart was as good as new.