Replacing the kickstart spring

Provided by Jake Beatson

Just put the NF back together for the first early Spring run, nice new stainless rims and spokes, repaired back mudguard, kick it over, and the kickstart return spring breaks. Not a good start….

On the plus side, NLM have a new spring with me the next morning. Well done Stuart Mayhew!

Take off the circlip and thrust washer, and discover that the flywheel's in the way. Don't have the special tool to take it off, neither do NLM or Agostinis, and alternatives refuse to budge the locking ring. Throw all my toys out of the pram, and kick a few tools around the garage.

Studying the Italian manual, and using Babelfish to 'translate' the relevant bits, it says something like, take off the flywheel using the special tool. Not a lot of help there. In a rare moment of calm, notice an illustration of a complete engine sitting on the specially designed bench mounting stand. It has a flywheel, but no kickstart, so it must be possible to get it off without removing the flywheel. Back to the bike, and see that it's actually the frame and the rear engine mounts that stop the kickstart quadrant from rotating far enough to get it past the flywheel. As I don't want to take the whole engine out, I devise a cunning plan to rotate it around the front engine mounts. Procedures as follows:

You've already slackened the front engine mount where the footrests bolt on, to get the flywheel cover off, so leave it slack, with the footrests dangling. I already have the silencer off, but you will need to remove yours. Remove anything else that isn't flexible, and is connected between the engine and the frame, like the air filter box. With the bike on the centre stand, put a bottle jack or similar under the rearmost end of the sump, with a block of wood to protect the casting. Raise the jack until it just contacts the sump, and applies a very slight pressure.

Remove both rear engine mounting bolts, complete with their two aluminium spacers. Note where the spacers go, with the wide ones on the left side. Both my long spacers have a groove cut in them, which also goes to the left. My lower mounting bolt comes out easily, but the spacers are jammed solid, and I have to knock them out with a bit of wood, but more of that later…

Raise the jack, and the motor will tilt forward, pivoting on the front mounting point. Be careful that nothing jams or sticks, and that you haven't forgotten to remove anything that stops the engine moving freely. When both mounts are about 50mm above their original position, refit the upper mounting bolt, and tie it up on to the frame with a suitable bit of rope or something. If you're brave, and/or don't need to move the bike, I guess you could leave it on the jack, but I wanted to take it out of the garage, to clean the area of oil and goo, before doing the rest.

Remove the circlip and thrust washer, if you haven't already, and rotate the kickstart until the quadrant disengages from the sprocket. Rotate it one way, and then the other, and you can pull it past both the frame and the flywheel.

Fitting the new Spring

I wasn't sure where it was meant to fit, but stuck it where it seemed most obvious, and it worked (see photos). This is a good time to fit a new and large diameter rear washer, as contributed by Godfrey Knight.

I was in a hurry, and although the new spring was close to the chain, it didn't look like it was going to touch (no doubt I will be proved wrong on this), so I stuck the original washer back on.

Next thing is to tension the spring BEFORE lowering the engine back into position. As far as I can make out, the straight end of the spring is supposed to rest on top of the groove in the alloy spacer fitted to the lower engine mounting bolt. I levered the end up with a screwdriver on to the alloy boss that sticks out where the mounting bolt goes through, and held it there whilst I lowered the motor back down. Then it's a simple matter of pushing in the spacer, and the mounting bolt, to hold it in place, and dropping the spring end into its groove.

Then it should be a simple matter of fitting the top bolt, and the rest of the spacers, and the job's done. In my case, it wasn’t, as although the top bolt and spacers went in without any problem, there was no way that the right hand spacer on the lower bolt was going to fit. It was about 3mm wider than the space it came out of, and there's not much room in there to 'persuade' it.

I did check that both the left and both the right spacers were the same size, and picked the thinnest to fit on the lower bolt, but there still wasn't enough room.

Eventually, I'm ashamed to say, I resorted to filing it down until it fitted. In retrospect, it seems clear that the motor must have been fitted to the frame before the rest of the bits were bolted on, and one of the later additions must have stressed the frame, so that it sprung shut when I knocked the spacers out. The most likely culprit is the swinging arm, and maybe I'd have got the spacer in if I'd just slackened the bolts for that off, and saved myself the public humiliation of admitting such a bodge.

Anyway, it all went back together, and did its first 100km of the year without problems. Just hope I put the spring where it's meant to be…..

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