Kickstart shaft out of alignment?

So my kickstart lever has been fine, no clearance problems, then after a high-rev run the clearance is gone and in fact the arc of the lever is now a full 1/2" inboard of the pipe. All in all it must have moved one inch inboard, that is when kicked, the position of the pedal-knuckle is about an inch further closer to the bike than before. No hope of clearing the muffler.
I have checked the gearbox alignment, the various chain tensions, loosened all mounting and tension hardware and re-tightened, rear wheel alignment looks good. Re-set the pipe and muffler from the exhaust nuts to the pipe-muffler clamp and everything is as before. The kickstart shaft looks like it did before, not skewed or anything, yet the lever is out of whack. Could it have shifted inside the box?

I don't think it could have shifted by that much in the box. Check your headsteady. Jim

comnoz said:

I don't think it could have shifted by that much in the box. Check your headsteady. Jim

Click to expand...

Yes, and ISO's. Cradle to crankcase bolts. Check all you mounting bolts. Grab the kick start lever and try to move inboard and outboard, lifting and pulling, looking for movement. Do this "OFF" the center stand.

There is a rash of people losing the pivot bolt on the gearbox lately.

Thanks, I'll check all that by the weekend and post results.

If you don't care to read the large paragraph below please take a look at my verbally compressed question below. Thanks.

Did that pinch bolt fix the problem? I just had a very similar experience. I kick-started my Commando, road it around the yard for a minute or two, then turned it off. Later that day I kick-started it and heard a loud bang. I then kick-started it again and the kick lever stayed stuck underneath the muffler about 3/4 of an inch. Unfortunately I'm very unaware if the internal structure of the norton gear box. Does this pivot bolt somehow allow the kick lever to turn away from the motorcycle as it it kicked down? Pushing and pulling in and out on the kick lever it seems pretty firm. Not wobbly or loose. Does this sound like a pivot bolt problem? Or did I maybe just bend my kick lever? I'm rather uncomfortable breaking apart the motor/gear box on my norton so I'm not quite ready to just check it out by hand. I also don't really want to truck it 3.5 hours to the next shop and ask them if the problem is only a bent kick-start lever. Any ideas? I also don't want to buy a new kick start if mine isn't bent.


Sorry for the long question. To make it short; does this pivot bolt somehow make the lever stay far away from the muffler?


Thanks,

Marc

A hi rev run implies something dissolved inside tranny but its also entirely possible the kicker spines have finally failed to tip lever on shaft, if so you are in deep doodoo to remove it. For layshaft to move 1" inboard implies its busted out the DS of shell. Its possible the nut behind kicker on inner covers has backed off.

Manx54 said:

...I have checked the gearbox alignment, the various chain tensions, loosened all mounting and tension hardware and re-tightened, rear wheel alignment looks good. Re-set the pipe and muffler from the exhaust nuts to the pipe-muffler clamp and everything is as before. The kickstart shaft looks like it did before, not skewed or anything, yet the lever is out of whack. Could it have shifted inside the box?

Click to expand...

Looking at http://www.oldbritts.com/1973_g8.html, bushes 18 and 19 would have to go very wrong to let the kickstarter move that much. In its normal state, mine is almost in contact with the outer tranny cover, thus no chance of moving that far to the left (1/16" max).

Does yours seem to have a lot of slop in it when wiggled left-right? It sounds like frame mounts would be more the issue as pointed out in the prior posts. As Pete.v points out, check this while perched on its wheels, sans stands of any sort.