/5 kick starter

[robertklee]

I've been working on my /5 for over a year and it's about ready to go. Put lots of new stuff on it, but didn't worry about starter 'cause it seemed to be working fine. Mentioned to somebody that if it broke, I'd just use kick starter (real motorcycles have kick starters). He said that the kick starters on /5 usually weren't any good. Is it common for kick starters on /5's not to work? If so, why.
Thanks.

:usa

[DennisDarrow]

Perhaps others will correct me; but here is my take. The /5 transmission, of which the gearing for the kick start is part of, is a pretty much duplication of the /2 and even older. As such, a pretty robust build and will take the abuse of a Wermact Soldaten tryin to get it started in the depths of winter outside of Stalingrad........

It's when the 5 speed came into being that some of the problems became apparent as to get that extra gear in the box they had to shortcut some of the mechanisms.......The kick start in this case, is not as robust, problems developed, so they eliminated it...............

Sooooooo with a /5.......as far as I am concerned......kick away........Dennis

[tghsmith]

/5 and later trans. have a kick-start idler gear located on a stub shaft in the back plate of the trans. this stub is famous for loosening, leaking and or falling into the the works of the gearbox, there is a machine shop stlye fix, to check locate the shaft end between the kicker and clutch rod unit, look for leaking, engage kicker and feel for any movement of the shaft end, If it tight good.. then keep the battery and starter in good shape and forget about the kicker, kick starting a well running bike can take practice, push starting up in third gear (if you have a good pusher works about the best...

[noahblair]

I've been kick starting my /5 ever since I noticed the guys I bought it from put a cheap wal-mart battery in it. I put the battery on a tender as much as possible, but when the battery doesn't have enough juice, I'll kick start it with no problems. Get a good battery so you won't have to, but try not to worry too much about the kick starter, it'll work just fine in the case of a dead battery.