hey everyone, i just put together a kick start for my quad and its almost ready to start up but i was wondering if with the kick start is there any chance of the actual gears inside the kick start catching or anything to mess it up since the kick start was never used in it?
and is there any precautions to be taken with the kick start compared to the electric start or push starting?
im fairly up to date with the regular starting procedure but its the first time having a kick start so just wondering what else could go wrong!!! hahaha but any comments or thoughts are welcome and i will put up pictures of how i built it if anyone else is interested.

 

Kick through a couple times with the ignition off, then slowly get the piston a tad past TDC and kick through. DON'T let up on the kick start lever until it starts! Had a Husky 390 kick back on me in 1989 and ended up with a hairline fracture on my ankle! Never could kick strong again after that!
Don't know what you have or how you have it mounted,but if it has a standard idle gear that ratchets out against the clutch basket gear like most motorcycles have,then don't let off the lever!! Have a good pair of boots also. OPT

 

and i should know TDC stroke because it is the stroke with compression, right? and the set up i have is there was the spindle coming out on the right hand side of the quad, kicking back. i am going to weld on a metal bar with a foot piece that can turn in out of the way. so 1) wear boots 2) kick all the way and follow through and 3) bring her over to the TDC stroke. so far so good!!

 

i just realised that there migh not be enough room on the quad for the kick start lever as there is approximately 100 degrees of rotation and im not sure just how much it needs to turn!! would it matter if you dont kick it down all the way or is that what causes the kick back?

 

That's how it happen to me! Just don't let off the kick start lever and lift your foot up! What happen was the kick start lever hung up and as I raised my foot,the engine tried to start and kicked the ratchet back in, slamming the lever under the bottom of my foot,sounded like gun going off! It had that much force! But this was a big 390 2stroke too. Ankle was black an blue for about 3 weeks,but didn't go to the doctor(stupid) Found out when arthritis hit me later in life that when they took x rays of my hands,feet,knees,they found where my ankle had evidence of a hairline fracture. Now most of these big dirt bikes have electric start OPT