Kick start locks up

[Joe Gagliardi]

So I’ve been fooling around with my 1980 xs400 and I’m just about ready to throw the damn thing on Craigslist and have it become someone else’s problem.

The bike ran like a top when I first got it. The starter is bad so I have to kick start it, no big deal.
I decided to ride it to the mailbox to grab the mail and it proceeded to stall and die on me (May be close to out of gas, again no big deal).

I put it in neutral and go to kick start it but my kick start is stuck. Put the bike into gear and rock it a few times, kick start becomes unstuck. Start it and it dies again and the kick start becomes stuck again as if the engine froze.

What do I do?

 

[NewHavenMike]

Youre better off with a minibike for mailbox runs.

 

[Joe Gagliardi]

Youre better off with a minibike for mailbox runs.

Well that’s not the only I use it for haha

 

[NewHavenMike]

Get the problem to occur again. Try kicking with the clutch pulled in. If the kick start is still locked, remove side cover and examine kick start. If it moves freely, you have a potentially big problem with the trans or rotating assembly.


Have you been shifting without using the clutch? Thats what (I think) killed the trans in my 360cc block. Only did it a handful of times and thats all it took.