Wahoo!!!

I have joined the Kick Starter (Kickstarter) Elite!

Here's my How-to.

Thanks to Finger Mullet for his "Tome of Inspiration".

http://www.cyclepathic.com/klx/klx_KickStarter.htm

Lauren.

 

Good write up. My wife likes the "magic button" but this will help those that like a good tutorial to get them started. I did read on the TT forum where someone bought a used KLX and the dealer or previous owner installed a kick start kit and did something wrong where a metal piece or chunk broke and the only fix is a new case or case half. I will try to find it and post a link to prevent other people making the same mistake.
db

edit: Oops, that article was about a different bike. But if you do a search in the TT Kawasaki forums for "kick starter" you can read about some of the issues you may run into down the road.

 

That would be great!
For my own piece of mind too!
L

 

man.... im gonna call you the write up queen...... good job A+ report!!!!

 

wow nice lauren!! good job.

 

Fantastic!

 

Great write-up LaurenOE!

The issue a few people are remembering -at least I'm pretty sure- has to do with the Idle gear. There is uneven pressure on it due to a design flaw, so thereis a problem with it cracking and eventually 'coming from together.'

This problem is lessened, to a great extent, by going with the revised timing on Automatic Compression Release (ACR),located on the exhaust cam. I think Kawiimprovedthe timing on the KLX300 ACR, starting in2005... I think they called it'E-Z start.' Anyway, the revisedtiming lessens your kicking effort, makes the bikemuch easier tostartand relieves a lot of pressure on the idle gear.

The KLX250S ACR still has the old timingbecause it rolls out of the factory with no kick starter. There is a guy who goes by 'Brewster' (Bruce Brazil) over at thumpertalk.com KLX/KLR forum whocan change the timing for you by removing the ACR and pressing it back on ina slighly different posistion. He recently celebrated his 100th ACR timing change. There is also a procedure at Planet KLX for those who have the tools and are adventurous. The most expensive option is to buya 2005 or newer KLX300 exhaust cam.

As long as you keep you e-start andonly use the kickstarter for emergencies, It probably won't be an issue, but I've seen at least one post from somebody who planned on removing the battery and e-start to 'save weight'


After search the online fich, here is a list of bikes with the old timing (Exhaust Can PN 12044-1365)

KLX250H6F (KLX250S) (2006)
KLX250H7F (KLX250S) (2007)
KLX300-A2 (KLX300R) (1997)
KLX300-A3 (KLX300R) (1998)
KLX300-A4 (KLX300R) (1999)
KLX300-A5 (KLX300R) (2000)
KLX300-A6 (KLX300R) (2001)
KLX300-A7 (KLX300R) (2002)
KLX300-A8 (KLX300R) (2003)
KLX300-A9 (KLX300R) (2004)

 

Cool, thanks for the info!

Yes, I put the kickstarter on purely for backup. The reasons I did it.
1)If my battery dies.
2)If I ingest water and want to pump the water out without the battery.
3)If a fuse blows that prevents me from using the battery/starter.
4)If the starter fails in some way.

Granted, I probably won't be in those situations too often, but in Florida, in the heat, I have had batteries give up.

 

Where in Florida are you? We are in the panhandle. We had the battery die once and just push started it but there are times where the kicker would come in handy for sure. Make sure you get a Battery Tender to keep your battery happy
db

Tremor38: That is some of the stuff I read too but didn't want to put a damper on his new mod but I am glad you followed up so he understands there are potential issues under certain cicumstances.

 

Yeah, I'm real careful not to be interpreted the wrong way. If I rode in more dirt, I probably would have installed a kickstarter by now.