Starter Clutch and Chain

Went for a long ride on my KZ250 yesterday, and after a couple of hours I stopped for a drink. Got back on, tried to start it and the starter was just spinning. Figured it was the solenoid (I'm more of a car mechanic than a bike mechanic!), so I roll started it and brought it home.

A bit of research indicated there was no solenoid, so I was preparing for a starter clutch rebuild or a new chain. However, I pulled off the side cover, and found the clutch was working fine, and the chain intact. However, the sprocket had fallen off the starter motor and the chain was just sitting loose at the bottom.

I can put the chain back on, the clutch works fine and the starter can spin now. However, I don't wan't to just fall off again - but there doesn't seem to be anything in the design to prevent that.



The picture above shows what it looks like back together. You can see that there's nothing stopping the sprocket from sliding off the starter motor shaft. The manual doesn't mention anything, and neither do the exploded parts diagrams: www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Kawasaki/...ER+CLUTCH/parts.html

Is it simply a matter of getting a tighter chain? This one does have a bit of slack as you can see, but not enough to skip teeth, just enough so that the sprocket can slide off the shaft. It seems a very primitive way of keeping the sprocket on the shaft though - am I missing anything here?

So I've had a second look - I'm missing a part. If you look at the disassembly I mentioned before ( www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Kawasaki/...ER+CLUTCH/parts.html ) part no. 13169 is up at the top left floating by itself with a screw. I'm missing that - it overlaps both the starter sprockets and prevents it from sliding off. Whatever dunce put it together last didn't put it back in.

HA ha ha... sorry to laugh but after many years of rebuilding previous owner's insane tries at repairing, refurbishing or restoring halfway decent motorbikes... it never ceases to amaze me at the utter incompetence of back yard mechanics... not that a good shop or dealer doesn't make errors like this. LOL!!
Good catch and your instincts proved right!

missionkz wrote: HA ha ha... sorry to laugh but after many years of rebuilding previous owner's insane tries at repairing, refurbishing or restoring halfway decent motorbikes... it never ceases to amaze me at the utter incompetence of back yard mechanics... not that a good shop or dealer doesn't make errors like this. LOL!!
Good catch and your instincts proved right!

It's pretty amazing how much I have found in such a small time. The engine had been rebuilt, with good, OEM parts, but not by a good mechanic. The cam chain o-ring found under the head was missing which was why I was leaking so much oil. The oil strainer was blocked with silicone from the liberal amounts of silicone they had used, and it had been running with car oil, so the clutch was dragging. All I have left now is to find out if they've desecrated the gearbox too.