I don't have a problem with Kawasaki selling race bikes with no warranty. That is if they put
All of the parts in the bike and put them in correctly. My kicker would not engage every time I used it from the day I got the bike new in late 04'. It got worse as time went on till finally no engagement at all. That was Halloween day 05'. After that the only way to start the bike was to pull start it. I didn't go far from the house. Before I took the bike apart I ordered any part that might be worn or broken. New from Kawasaki I bought, circlips, ratchet gear, ratchet spring, kick spring, kick spring guide, ratchet guide, thin steel washers and kick starter stop. I also bought from Ebay a complete kickstarter assembly for $5, $7 for shipping.
The first problem was getting the right side case off. After I took everything apart the case would not clear the weld on the frame (left side of case, left of kicker shaft). Some file work corrected that. Not that big a deal. Definitely buy the clutch tool. After pulling the clutch the kickstarter assembly pulls out with ease. I found that the ratchet gear spring most likely was not installed properly. It looked like they put the circlip on first then tried to force the spring over it instead of removing circlip installing the spring and installing a new circlip. Kawasaki recommends a new circlip each time. The circlip was in the middle of the spring. The spring only had half the strength to push the ratchet gear into the kickstarter assembly. It got weaker over time and no longer worked. I don't see how it could have jumped the circlip. I think it was installed wrong.
The next problem I found was no kickstarter stop. That's the small piece of metal that bolts under the ratchet guide and stops the kickstarter from hitting aluminum. Without the stop your ratchet guide works as the stop, not good. The first night we worked on the bike I forgot my camera so I don't have a pic of the improperly installed spring. We put the starter assy. back together and the clutch. Went to put the side case on, and it would not mate. No matter what I did it would not go together. I did not get rough with it and called it a night. Last night Dan called me to come over to work on the bike. We thought by adding the stop it made the ratchet guide stick out more and would not let the case close. So that's why they left it out. We were wrong. There is a little slot on the plastic kick spring guide that the kick spring fits into and I missed it. This made the kick spring stick out more not letting the case close. We corrected it and it all went together with ease, kind of. After oil and radiator fluid it was test the starter time.
I forgot to bring my moto cross boots and was wearing light hiking boots. With my K5 bite to my knee back in Dec. 04' I only gave it 3 lame kicks. Could not kick it all the way thru. Dan stepped up to the plate, started with his first kick. Man was I happy.
After the warm up Dan took the bike for a spin. He was amazed with the power of the K5. He rides a CR250, says the CR is a fast bike but nothing like my K5.
I am posting all my pictures in the Gallery (Danger4u2) in starter issues. Double click the pictures for the explanation.
http://www.kxriders.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=80 I hope this story will keep at least one person from having to remove the side case and clutch assembly 2 times to fix one problem.
Danger
