gearbox assembly

hi, I'm reassembling my gearbox, and I have a couple of questions. First, the original kickstart shaft had a large crack (lucky I decided to replace the bearings before it fragged!), so I'm replacing it. I have a couple used ones in good shape, but they both have the hole for the return spring 180 degrees from the original. Otherwise, they are identical. So when I fit the spring, it's not very tight. Of course, it tightens up when the shaft rotates.
I haven't seen a mention of different part numbers for kick shafts or springs. Does anyone know why they're different, and if it matters much?
Finally, when fitting the inner cover: gasket sealer or no? If so, what kind?

Thanks,
swensosc

You probably have a couple of pre 1964 k/s shafts used on the Dommies etc. They have a different no of coils on the spring and hook up on the inner cover via a hole and not the peg used by Commando housings. I had the same problem when I bought Commando covers to convert my Dommie based box and had to go and buy new k/s shaft.
On gasket sealer if the faces are in good condition you don't need anything really but I always use a thin smear of silicone as backup.

hi, thanks for the info. I think that must be the case. Weird that I've ended up with two of them. I think I'm just going to drill a hole in the proper place and see how it goes with one of these.

Hi,

I bought a new k/start shaft a while ago & this was drilled in two places for the spring.
Presumably to be able to fit in older g/box & later commando (which has the hole in approx 9 o clock position.