WR 250 F Kick starter problems?

Handl-it

Member
Jun 1, 2000
44
0
While working on my Wr 250 F I noticed the Kick starter lever had a big gash in it from the foot peg. On further inspection the whole splined mount was loose on the shaft. Even worse the shaft is loose in the case. The lever hits the foot peg and bends in towards the engine putting alot of stress to the whole assembly. I have welded a larger tab onto the peg to stop the lever from following the curve of the peg. I also added a shim washer behind the kick starter to tighten it on the shaft and some bearing mount Lock tight. And no the bolt that holds the lever on was never loose, so this post is just to get people to check this out and prevent trouble. With these mods so far so good!
 

Hawaii-Rider

Member
Feb 24, 2001
210
0
WR had to teach us..........

How to start it.......but that said, we noticed our KS lever getting the notch, so with all the options, blames (Yamaha, kicking too hard etc) I had some real good radiator hose, cut two bout oh........3" pieces, slit them lengthwise, put one on, zip tie'd it top and bottom, then slipped the second one over it, 3 zip ties....... and it works super, kind of a custom KS bumper.
Granted, I was notching the KS lever (and my son) already, due to not knowing how to start these things.
We do now and it is a one kick affair, cold or hot, and an easy kick (ala KDX 200).
Good luck, hope the "groove" thing stops!.......parts aint cheap!
I know this probably doesnt help much now (oooops) but after repairs, prevention is strongly recommended.......my $.02....
Good Luck on the fix, hope it is not toooooo terminal.....

HR
:cool:
 

Handl-it

Member
Jun 1, 2000
44
0
The rubber is a good idea, but mine is bad enough that it gets cut the first try. The kick start completely misses the small tab stop on the foot peg. My buddy went to Idaho for the ISDE qualifiers and looked at a lot of kick start levers. All the 4 stroke Yamaha 250's had marks or notches cut into the levers! My bike starts easy enough, but it should be built right. By welding on a bigger tab and matching the angle of the stop to the kick starter the problem goes away. I just hope to save somebody some green stuff so they can go ridding. A good welder can save you some serious dollars in repairs.
 

Hawaii-Rider

Member
Feb 24, 2001
210
0
Lucky I guess. . .

That we caught it when we did, cause are aint that bad yet.
I did see another mod where someone took a chunk of rubber (tire or actual conveyor belt), drilled and tapped the footpeg and mounted a big chunk of the stuff right where the KS hits.......
the ultimate
"Safe Kickstarting" I guess.......
but I agree, couple of more minutes with a design engineer would save a ton of grief, but then would keep folks like BBR without as much $$$$ in the tills..........
sigh
HR

:cool:
 
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