Kicker shaft spline teeth

Still new to Nortons, but I have an observation that I feel the need to comment on. Please forgive me if this has already been covered elsewhere. My 71 came as a 50th birthday gift from an old racing buddy who knew I had always wanted a Norton. The only downside was that the kickstarter on this bike had been welded to the kicker shaft by some previous owner. I soon learned that the splines on these shafts were a common source of failure and apparently the previous owner thought better to weld than replace. While I don’t agree with his logic I can understand not wanting to replace a flawed part that predictably failed with another brand new but equally flawed part. That might fall under some common definition of stupidity regarding doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. That said, the welded shaft looked a lot like something that frequently comes out of the back of my dog so I set about replacing it. Upon receiving my new shaft I noticed that the manufacturer had machined splines away to provide clearance for the kicker clamp bolt. Understood. Problem is, in addition to the middle portion of the splines needed to be removed for bolt clearance, they removed the middle splines around the entire circumference of the shaft. So, they removed about 40% of the much needed shaft splines instead of only removing the 12% needed for bolt clearance. As I take my die grinder to this welded hardened mess I can’t help but wonder why this spline material was removed circumferentially on a lathe vs. only where it’s needed on a milling machine with an indexed fixture. 28% of our precious splines could have been saved! Doing it in a mill wouldn’t take much more time if properly fixtured. I’m thinking seconds, not minutes. My much needed spline teeth are now laying on a shop floor somewhere in the UK. On to my comment to whomever is currently manufacturing these shafts this way: Please stop it! I understand that you may sell fewer shafts going forward if you give us back our teeth, but what you are doing is a bad practice and should be stopped immediately.
Thank you,
Scott

All kick levers aren't created equal. Where did you get yours from?
If the bolt is tightened correctly and checked once in a while, this is not an impending failure.

I think maybe it's done so you have a choice of where your kick start arm ends up when you are not jumping on it .... not sure though just a guess .... those things can get in the way when out and about ...
Craig

When you bite the bullet and buy the new kick start because the old one wobbles and never is able to tighten , you need to also buy a new shaft....another bullet to bite. If you don't chances are the new kicker will turn into the one you replaced real soon. This is not a cheap fix. Get the Andover Norton parts as apposed to the Indian knock offs.
Regards,
Thomas
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