Z900A4 Engine Rebuild - Gear Selection and Kickstart Ratchet

[duckman]

I'm rebuilding the engine on my 1976 Z900. I've just joined the crankcases together and the Clymer manual says to test all the gears work before fitting the oil pump. However, when I try to select gears all I can do is go from neutral to 1st and back again.

I've not dismantled the gear shafts so they've gone in as they came out. I believe there is a mechanism on 4th gear on the output shaft which prevents overshooting to 2nd gear when trying to find neutral. Is it this that is stopping me from selecting the higher gears? If so, is there any way round this - I'd like to check the gears are working properly before completing the rebuild.

Also. when I turn the output shaft the kickstarter clicks against the ratchet all the time - is it supposed to do this?

Any help appreciated

[chrisNI]

Check this out

Can't help with the kickstart I took mine out a long time ago sorry

[duckman]

Thanks Chris, I looked at the post and it suggests that there is no work around and I have to trust to luck and go ahead with the rebuild without knowing whether I'll have gears when I fire up!

[Mick D]

they wont engage anything other than 1st or neutral without the engine running. Should be fine when its fired up.

[Pigford]

Thats, engine running & bike moving along

[Dodgy Z1B]

Yep just stopped messin about adjustinf the clutch etc. because I didnt realise that you can only engage first gear when your standing still. Was beginning to think the box was knackered .

[cra-z1]

If you determined to check the function of the gears and wanted to spend just a little extra time you would need to remove the three little ball bearings which keep it going into 2nd. once your satisfied you need to put them back in without any grease. I would do this if you wanted to check the shifting forks or if you messed with any gears. If your bike was running good before then your probably ok.

[cra-z1]

also you need to have the kick start spring in place so the gear is disengaged

[duckman]

Thanks guys, it looks like things are as expected with the gears. I'll trust that it'll all be OK when it's fired up.

cra-z1, the kickstarter is still bugging me. As with the gears, I didn't dismantle it, so the spring is still in place where it should be. When I turn the gears over, 2nd gear on the output shaft turns over the kickstarter gear. The spring forces the ratchet gear against the kickstarter gear, constantly clicking against the ratchet. It's not turning the kickstarter shaft over, but I'm surprised that the ratchet is clicking away all the time that the bike is moving. Seems a bit wierd to me

[Rich]

but if it didn't do that would you be able to kick it up? The ratchet should drive one way and slip the other. Unfortunately like Chris mine went into the spares boxes a long time ago, but I would expect this is normal operation. If you have no joy I will dig through my spares boxes after the weekend and fish the old one out to look at.

[cra-z1]

There are two springs involved on the kick start shaft. The spring you mentioned is on the end of the shaft (inside the engine) and loads the ratchet onto the kickstart gear. The second spring is located behind the cover and this is the spring(heavy coiled) that returns the kickstart and disengages the ratchet from the gear. Is this spring in place? This spring has to have enough force to disengage the ratchet. If the ratchet does not disengage you will hear the click, click, click while the bike is running. Did you have the kickstart assembly apart, as in taking the ratchet off the shaft for inspection or something. If it was reassembled wrong you may not have enough preload from the large spring behind the cover to disengage the ratchet from the kickstart gear.

[cra-z1]

Sorry I guess you stated you did not take the thing apart. I assume you are turning the engine over by the 17mm nut on the points side when you here the clicking. I would bet you have not installed the large spring on the kickstart shaft.

[duckman]

Bingo!

cra-z1, you are a star. I've fitted the larger spring and it forces the shaft hard against the end-stop, can't be more than a few degress, but it's enough to disengage the ratchet. No more clicking

Muchos gracias

[cra-z1]

I'm glad that was the problem. Good luck on the rest of the project.