stuck kickstart

twist · Post by **twist** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:53 pm

so on my '86 spree the eletric start works awesome, but the kicker feels totally frozen. any idea why this would be? the cover seemed to go on fine when i put it back on...

bradthreee · Post by **bradthreee** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:06 pm

I had this same problem with one of mine when I took the cover off. Basically long story short, what you need to do is move the kick starter lever parallel to the cover before installing it back onto the motor. So move the lever downwards a tad bit before installing it back on

forewheelerdude · Post by **forewheelerdude** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:03 pm

yeah my kickstarter on my 86 spree gets stuck too and i got to give it a real good kick to get it back up.

toboggan · Post by **toboggan** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:02 am

Mine got stuck a few days ago, and i guess it shifted(my bolt was stripped) so i just moved it back.

Good luck!

slosquirrel · Post by **slosquirrel** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:29 pm

If you have a look at some of my past post you will see that I too have encountered this. Already happened to, and fixed it on my 89 Elite E and 87 Elite SE. More recently it happened to my 99 Elite S... Gonna fix it today.

If you pull off the belt cover (the one that houses the kicker), you will see a set of gears... I literally just take out everything housed in this cover except for the "half circle" gear, then I clean it all with some kind of contact cleaner and brush, follow that up with WD-40 and a soft wire brush to remove surface corrosion (mine were in pretty bad shape). Repeat this process as needes till it meets your satisfaction, then lubricate all of the moving parts with good quality grease. Slap everything back together, and make sure it's not still binding while you still have it off the bike.

When you go to bolt it back on it can get a little tricky, but take your time, make sure it lines up with the engine side gears, and as brad said "make sure the kicker is parrelel to the cover", you usually have to hold down the kicker lever a bit, or atleast jiggle it.

Sorry for the long winded explanation. But 3 of my 4 scooters don't have working batteries/electric starts, so needless to say I do alot of kickstarting, and with use comes wear, maintenance, etc...

Good Luck