kz440 LTD kickstart

This is something I did 15 years ago. I believe it is well known that the kickstart internals from a 1979 kz400 fits the kz440. Yes, it just bolts right in



but that spring kept wanting to pop out of the hole so found something the right size (a piece of brake line I think) to make a sleeve that solved the problem


but make sure to use '79 parts. the gear I bought from ebay was listed with the '79 part number but clearly, with 23 teeth it is not a '79 and it doesn't mesh properly with the transmission gear. I only learned this when putting the case 1/2s together and they wouldn't close up because the gear didn't fit


The correct one (on the right) has 20 teeth


And for my bike, that was the easy part because mine is a late model year (1983) with the clutch actuator on the right hand side so it is not possible to use the side cover from a 400. So I had to use my side cover and there is no boss or support for the kicker shaft:



And it seems I am not allowed to fitt all my photis in one post so, continues next post...

... continuing:
so, make a template where the kicker shaft goes and mark it on a chunk of scrap aluminum, cut it out, clean it up and make it fit:





 

... continuing and finishing:
did some polishing while waiting for the correct 20 tooth gear to arrive


The kicker shaft support part I made I basically glued it on to the cover using RTV sliicone

And here it is still working (and not leaking oil) after 15 years and 50,000 km