kz440 LTD kick start

Yes it can be done and its definately worth it. The electric starters don't allways work (mine doesn't anyway), but one kick starts it almost every time. I once went a year with no electric starter because I was too lazy to fix it since after all it works just fine with the kicker.

When they did away with the kick starter, they didn't redesign the cases, they simply didn't install the parts. So all you have to do is buy the parts from a 1970 kz400 and they bolt right in.

Here is the inside of the case with the kicker parts installed:


and the outside. The only modification I had to do herre was make a small sleeve for the end of the spring because without that it wanted to jump out of the hole in the case:


But you gotta watch what you get for a kicker gear. I ended up with a 23 tooth gear which does not mesh with the gear that its supposed to mesh with.


I had to look some more till I found the correct 20 tooth gear. Here is the wrong one on the left and correct one on the right.


Once the correct 20 tooth kicker gear is fit the cases fit together nicely. And that is were the easy part stops. The clutch cover on the 440 LTD has no reinforced area to hold the kicker shaft bushing. So I made something out of a solid chunk of aluminum that could hold the bushing and could fit through a hole I cut in the clutch cover:


I put a bunch of goop between my new part and the clutch cover to seal it up and bolted it together till the goop set. You can also see here there is a bit of a recess to hold the oil seal.:

 

Aparantly I can't put too many photos in one post so continues here:

Actually the part did need a bit more shaping:


so that the kick pedal could tuck away nicely like this when not in use:


And here it is, 12 year later still going strong:


My electric starter is failing more often now,  I should really service it again. But I probably won't get around to to it for a while because I really don't need it.