kick start

my 71 roadster 750 is my first kick start bike. it starts 1 or 2nd kick. trouble i have is that nearly every other time i go to start the bike, the kick start doesn't budge. on the next effort it works fine. any thoughts? is this technique or is it a kick starter jam?

That could be injurious to ones leg, kicker mechanism and incentive to ride.
My guess is issue may be found in ratchet mechanism by opening the outer cover.
Of course that assumes the kick lever has not grown roots/lips in the splines to foil removal from shaft as expected. Ratchet mech is pretty simple to service once exposed. 1st gear likely fine but ratchet pin and wedge could be beat up and sticking to release for clean follow though. Its also possible a more serious/dangerous issue developing in the layshaft DS bearing. It can cause kicker to hang up or slam down or even lock up whole drive train instantly while riding
and de-clutching has no effect.

In to Commandos? = in for a penny down for pounds.
hobot

jebjones said:

my 71 roadster 750 is my first kick start bike. it starts 1 or 2nd kick. trouble i have is that nearly every other time i go to start the bike, the kick start doesn't budge. on the next effort it works fine. any thoughts? is this technique or is it a kick starter jam?

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Can you describe your starting procedure.

Most would tickle the carbs to flood
Pull the clutch and push the kickstart through to free the plates
Then it varies a bit, either kick over or push through through one compression to the next and kick or push past a compression and kick.

What's your flavour?

After freeing the clutch off I usually only bring the lever back so its at about 10 o'clock. Are you letting the lever back to vertical? there's not much mechanical advantage there.

my flavour is the same as yours. regardless of position of the lever, i get the same results. i think it is a gear box problem? i just returned from a short ride and shifting was troublesome. inconsistent inability to shift from 2nd - 3rd or 3rd-4th. downshifting was fine.

jebjones said:

trouble i have is that nearly every other time i go to start the bike, the kick start doesn't budge. on the next effort it works fine.

Click to expand...

I'm sure I've experienced the same sort of thing, because occasionally when I press down on the kickstart lever it stops dead as if the mechanism has somehow locked solid.

I'm not exactly sure why it happens, it's probably wear in the ratchet assembly I expect, but I've never found the root cause.

By chance, have you pulled the middle primary inspection plug and checked that you have the right slack to your primary chain?

Books says 3/8-inch "movement" of the primary chain using two fingers of pressure upwards.

Point of calibration: As this is a considerable chain, how much finger pressure is considered to be the required "healthy" pressure to cause this deflection ?