Kick Start Shaft C-clip surprise

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PoppaBear

Member
After splitting the cases on the K1, replacing the 3 speed with a 4 speed, and cleaning things up I happened upon this surprise. The Kick Start Shaft C-clip, between the pinion gear and the LH case (#9 on the diagram, right side of #1), was missing an ear!

My ChannellLock snap ring pliers were useless on it. Needed to Dremel the clip in half to remove it. It pays to inspect and/or R&R everything on the kick shaft, especially in this situation. By the way, this is the first time the cases have ever been split on this K1. Judging from the cracked metal, it looks like it was broken for a very long time. I wonder what happened to the rest of the C-clip that broke off. No evidence of it anywhere in the cases...

KickStartShaft.png
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PoppaBear

Member
darrel - thanks for the reply. OK, that is reassuring. I plan on replacing the shaft/pinion with the upgraded one that you recommend, any advice there? I don't have any modifications to the engine yet, but I'm sure that will be short lived.

Could you guesstimate why half of the engines have this issue (design flaw, or user abuse). Any way to reduce/eliminate it (better snap ring/C-clip, larger thrust washer)?
 
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PoppaBear

Member
I am wondering if I found the issue related to the broken C-Clip. In re-assembling the shaft, I noticed the pinion gear had some side-to-side play when mounted onto the shaft. It's hard to measure it, so I can't so for certain if it's out of spec. If the pinion gear wobbles into the C-Clip ear, I could see something breaking....
 
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