Recently my Kickstarter began giving me issues. It would work normally but when it got to normal operating temp, it would slip. The kickstarter would cycle through and not engage. After cooling down a bit, it would start to engage enough and I could start my 04 K5. I almost DNF'd the last couple of races because of this. After reading on this board what others have experienced, I decided to tear it apart and inspect the ratchet mechanism. As others have stated, the teeth are cast and not machined to a nice fit. I could see a little bit of rounding where the teeth slipped. I decided to cut the teeth to a nice sharp 90 degree angle and even put in a slight back cut. I used a Dremel and a tiny cutting wheel. It took less than 30 minutes and I had a nicely refurbished mechanism. I also streched the existing spring out to give it more tension. It worked like a champ! It also makes a more pronounced ratcheting sound. I rode around my neighborhood and stopped and started the bike to make sure it worked. It works better than new. I'm taking it out on a desert run this afternoon to give it more of a test. Thanks to everyone who wrote on here about this subject. Without your experience, I couldn't have done it.
