broke kick start....
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 6:31 pm
Curious why the 250 sl kickstarts break...is it due to weak mfg of the kick start shaft or something internal in the case. Im new here thanks!
From the factory the shafts were too short. Consequently, the kick start pinch knuckle doesn't have enough surface-area contact with the splines to cope with the repeated torque stresses of kicking the bike over.
As a case in point, in the '70s my 250SL was tossed out in the back bushes somewhere because the kick start shaft, and knuckle, stripped out at 830 miles.
SH had a quantity of repop kick shafts manufactured -- an inch or so longer than stock, which corrects the issue. I hope there are still some of these in inventory for the sake of future 250SL rebuilders.