Inner cover bush -steel?

My kickstart inner cover bush (040473) is plain steel. Also it spins in the cover quite smoothly yet I can't see any bearings inside it.Should it be fixed with loctite and not spin otherwise it would wear the casing? Why hasn't it dropped out axially if it spins? Does it rotate with the kickstart? Is this the one you can bore to take a proper lip seal? Thanks.

The steel bush that you are examining should fit "firmly" in the case. I have never had to press one in. It supports the shaft at that point. Look for cracks.
Machining of the outer cover can include both the shifter and the kicker seals. There are a few good machine shops that can do this and replace the o rings that usually leak.

Mike

Thanks, I'll heat it , take it out and make a new (hardened) one with seal recess.

Is it steel, or a fine grain cast iron ?

Don't know. Will hardness test it and see what's what. Might be better to just bearing lock the original back in place.

mikie3117 said:

The steel bush that you are examining should fit "firmly" in the case. I have never had to press one in. It supports the shaft at that point. Look for cracks.
Machining of the outer cover can include both the shifter and the kicker seals. There are a few good machine shops that can do this and replace the o rings that usually leak.

Mike

Click to expand...

Ditto re the comment about the steel bush.

Regarding any machining work that might be needed, I don't think FastFred needs any help (see his Gearbox Rebuild thread).

However, before modifying the outer cover to fit a seal, may I suggest simply changing to a metric O ring, 25mm ID x 4mm section. This cured the persistent weep from my kickstart.

The imperial O ring doesn't seem to fit tightly enough in the groove. I couldn't find a thicker section imperial ring, but the metric one works well.

Cheers
Martin

FastFred said:

Don't know. Will hardness test it and see what's what. Might be better to just bearing lock the original back in place.

Click to expand...

I doubt if Bearing Fit will work for very long. If the bush is loose you might get away with an oversize OD bush which should be a fit that prevents the bush from rotating in the casing. Size for size would probably work with this bush. If the bore in the outer cover is worn oval, you could get it cleaned up by a machine shop and a bush machined to suit (unless you have facilities yourself). A quad ring would be better than an O ring. If the inner and outer kickstart bushes are in good nick, and with a new quad ring, you should not get an oil leak. Some people have used JB Weld to locate loose bearings and bushes, but you will have a job getting the bush out again when you eventually need to replace it.