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Anyone need a Flying flea kickstart?

.............well you can't have this one! But I can help you find a cheap way to get one, but you need to have access to an oxy acetylene torch, for just one part of it. Also you will need a grinder and a mig welder.
I got a kickstart off Ron at a bargain price, it was a repro one that had a brass or bronze part that contained the spline, the first time I came to turn the engine over with it, the splines stripped, but I certainly wasn't buying another replica one as I didn't want the same thing happening again, so this left me kickstart-less.so I needed to get one sorted. The casting is the bit that everyone has the problem reproducing so I thought I'd look for something to modify and fabricate one. I had a sneaking feeling that it was about the same size as a Honda CG 125. It has to be the early type that folds out at the top not like the later ones that fold out at the bottom. This happened to be correct. I found a genuine one as I knew that they were forged steel and they never broke, also they were zinc plated rather than chrome, so it was easier to remove the plating.
Firstly I narrowed down the boss to the same dimensions as the original boss, I did this with a grinder and a flap disc to smooth out the grind marks. Then I heated just above the boss until it was red hot then bent it to a right angle, the CG kickstart already has a bend in it as it exits the boss so you don't have to bend it too far, I then cut it to the correct length and re heated it and whilst it was still in the vice and hit it to flatten it slightly as the CG one is slightly too round in shape. I then machined up a piece of round bar to the smaller diameter of the part where the other half of the kickstart lever fits into it. I bored the hole in it to accept the folding part, I welded this part on and then built up the welds and smoothed them out to blend the welds in to reproduce the shape. I left the larger diameter at the top until last as it would interfere with getting the grinder in to shape it. I then built up and shaped the top part, finally I used a rotary burr to cut the part out that controls how the lever itself pivots.
The only thing that I have to do is machine up an 8mm bolt with a 3/16" W spanner size hexagon as the CG has a larger diameter bolt , the last thing to do is to slightly relieve the shaft so that the bolt will pass through and lock it on the spline properly and hey presto it's done!
It took me a whole morning to make it, but its cheaper than £180 for a repro one. I won't be making these as they're a bit too time consuming to do and they cost a fortune to make commercially, but I will help by sending my brass casting out to copy as long as it comes back to me just in case I need to make another one, I will also send out the dimensions of the other parts to anyone who wants to have a go at making one. Even if you don't have the oxy acetylene you could probably get someone at a workshop /garage to do this bit, maybe you could make one between a few friends that may have some part of the equipment to make one
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Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

Re: Anyone need a Flying flea kickstart?

What a clever bugger you are Dave. I borrowed an original off a friend years ago and got a copy cast in bronze, as my local foundry didn't work with steel. My friend John did the machining and put the splines in by using a spare kick start shaft as a broach. It was on my bike for ages until a real one came along. It seemed strong enough for the job for the limited times I ever used it.
I was collecting some castings from a foundry in London earlier this year and was asked by Terry at Metal Magic if I could pick up his fresh batch of Flea kick start castings, which I delivered to Terry on my way home. A couple of days later, Terry rang me to say that the foundry had cast them in Brass instead of Bronze and that they wouldn't be strong enough and they would have to do them again. I'm wondering if the one you had from me was a Brass one and not my Bronze item?? Too much water under the bridge to remember who had what! Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Re: Anyone need a Flying flea kickstart?

Not to worry, I wasn't sure when you said it had bent a little bit, so I wasn't 100% happy with the fact that it was brass or bronze so I didn't see it staying on there too long before I sorted a replacement, I guess it forced my hand to do something about it. It was quite easy to make, just a bit time consuming and a bit of creative grinding! I notice that nearly everything on the Flea is metric, that what got my mind thinking about Japanese bike kickstarts

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

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