Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

Does anyone know what might be causing the kick start to not return to the up position
will I likely need parts ar just reset a spring??

If the kick arm hangs up in one position other than all the way down, it may be the engagement pawl inside the kickstarter pinion gear has popped out from under the retaining ring. This happened to me once; I removed the clutch cover, replaced the ring with another stiffer used-but-good one, reassembled the pawl and pinion, and all was well.

If the kick arm just flops all the way down and is easily moved around, it's probably the return spring inside the cases. Since NOS springs are practically non-existant, you'd have to replace it with another used one, and hope for the best.

You could also remove the pinion gear/pawl/ring and the kick arm, and just leave it like that. To save weight, I removed the kick arm from my new CR after I'd had it for a month (the kickstarter mechanism still worked fine) and ran it that way for at least 10 years, and I currently bump-start both the CR and MR whenever possible to save wear and tear on the springs.

Ray

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'74 CR125M (175cc), '75 MR175, '82 RM250Z, '08 YZ250F, '14 Zero FX electric, '14 Zero MX electric, '18 Alta MXR electric