Adding kick starter to KZ440?

I know the KZ440 never had a kick start but I am making my '80 KZ440 into a cafe style bike and I want to be able to kick it over. Can the kick starter assembly from a KZ400 be bolted directly on? Or perhaps one from another KZ? Surely someone out there must have wanted to do this as well. So my question for you gurus is simply, can it be done?

Bueller? Bueller?

Wow, I had never thought of that but if it can be done somewhat simply, I'd love to put one on my kz440. The electric starter doesn't always want to work.

Seriously? Nobody has any idea?

I guess I'll probably just end up buying the parts off ebay and attempting it, and if it doesn't work I blame you all. :dry:

Exothermia wrote:

Seriously? Nobody has any idea?

I guess I'll probably just end up buying the parts off ebay and attempting it, and if it doesn't work I blame you all. :dry:

Well, if I'm getting into trouble anyway, I might as well say something to merit said trouble!

My kz1000 has a kick start (I've seen its innards up close in my rebuild) Whether or not you'll be successful depends on how closely related the 400 and 440's are. My crank cases have a machined place for the kicker to ride as well as the appropriate gears to interact with the tranny.

At the very least you'll be splitting the cases to see if it'll all fit. You may be better off getting a complete kz400 engine w/ kicker and stuffing it into your frame.

hope this helps...Sam

Well the side of the engine case doesn't have the hole for the kicker but it has the round indent where it should be, if the hole were drilled for it, and it says kick starter next to it, so I can only assume the part is exactly the same but they just didn't drill a hole through it for a kick starter on a 440. So that leads me to believe all I need is this side piece from a 400, and the outer and inner kick assembly.

What I don't know exactly is will the 400 side case piece work on the 440 and will the 400 kicker assembly work with the 440 innards.

if you don't get an answer here, check these guys out>
www.armbell.com/forum/index.php?mforum=kz400
they are the 400, 440 guru's

This link talks about it.

www.armbell.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67...ckstart&mforum=kz400

OKC_Kent wrote:

This link talks about it.

www.armbell.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67...ckstart&mforum=kz400

Awesome! That's just what I was looking for. It looks like I was right, it should work fine. On later 440s with the clutch mechanism on the other side it gets more complicated, but mine is an earlier one with the left side clutch. So as I predicted I just need the side engine case from a 440, and the outer and inner kick assembly. Thanks all.

Now you have to post pictures; free advice ain't exactly free around here, there is a charge!