kickstarter woes

Some of you may have read about Erwin Roman's experiences with his 348 that he acquired. Erwin has been kind enough to share some photos of his rebuild. Below are some pics of his project.

The first photos are of the damage that has occurred to the crankcase. I believe most of us are familiar with the dreaded cracked magneto section of the rightside crankcase. If you are not-YOU ARE PROBABLY VERY LUCKLY!! I believe there has been some discussion on this topic on the Cota Message Board. If anybody has a GREAT fix for this-post it on the board, so we can all get some insight on the possible Solution to this frequent problem.

Erwin also sent some pictures of his high tech Mag Holder, so check that out.

Erwin wrote the following description of his fix:

Big problem. The machined stop on the kickstart shaft has punched a hole through the case into the mag flywheel. Then, to make matters worse, it slammed home and fractured the upper part of the case with the cast-in stop. The photos show the damage. In the first one you can see the hole and the crack in the case at the top. This piece came out just by pulling it. Man what a bummer. I hadn't even ridden this new bike and this! Talking with a few specialty shops I found that this damage could be repaired by welding / machining, but it would require splitting the cases. Working on a budget I didn't want to spend more than I already had on the bike and various parts so I spent a few nights looking closely at the damage and decided to try JB Weld. Before the case actually broke away it distorted so I had to work slowly with a file to remove and burrs that would prevent the fractured piece from fitting back properly. Then I JB Welded it to death. After that dried for a few days I fashioned a rectangular piece out of 1/8" aluminum flat stock to fit the hole below the first repair. This took some time and I had to make several before I had one I thought would work. In order to get this piece to stay put while the JBW set I had to stand the engine on its nose. Three days later everything looked pretty good and all I had to do was file the repair even with the edge of the case so the cover would fit and also dremel out a little excess JBW to clear the flywheel. The cover is back on and sealed with clear RTV and the whole thing works great! Examining the parts I discovered that the relationship between the kickstarter and the kickstart shaft is very important. If you reposition the kickstarter too far forward on the shaft, when it's kicked to about 6 o'clock, the steel stop on the shaft will impact the case. Be careful! I play it safe now and position the kickstarter at the same angle as the cylinder.

Mag Damage:

Here is the hole that is usually started by somebody who has a heavy foot or by someone who thinks that the kickstarter positiondoesn't matter . Then………….

…..Suddenly …….the case is ripped to shreds!! Now What???? Give us your opinion on the message board…..
 

  

Finished Work:

The "fix" looks great!! Better than stripping the engine, and paying a fortune for a welded "fix"!!








High-Tech Mag Holder:
Looks like it works great!!! Ask me again...why didn't I think of THAT????

The Start of a GREAT Trials Mount:
Here's the frame on the bike stand, w/ rebuilt forks, awaiting a few more parts. This is usually the point where I always ask myself….will it ever RUN again????

…..Also included is a photo of the bike as I got it. …..

…..The tank photo is for questions. How do I fix this kind of damage? …..