72 Suzuki gt550 kickstarter shaft, can it be pushed in.

[carson shmarson]

I recently got my 72 gt550 engine cases back together, the kickstarter shaft I noticed is sticking out too far, (about 1 cm) so if I try to pre load the tension, it pops out a little and all the tension gets lost. Also the ratchet doesn't make contact, and the clutch cover won't go all the way on with the shaft sticking out that far. Is there any chance it can be pushed in. Or did I somehow knock the spring out of the notch it sits in when I put the cases back together. I'm at a loss here it seems to be perfect minus the shaft being or too far.thanks for any help.

[carson shmarson]

Ok so I pulled the engine and split the case, the kickstarter shaft bushing (the one on the end) It popped up off the pin it sits on. So the bushing was damaged when I torqued down the case bolts. I asked a mechanic friend of mine cuz the case was tight going back together. And he replied "its pretty tight when you put em back together" it actually WAS too tight , you can tap with a closed hand (not that hard at all either) and the case will go together nicely. So I'm glad I pulled it and checked everything out a 2nd time also. There was possibly a couple things off, which I also repaired. (Bad pin for clutch bearing, and the crankshaft has the seals between the bearings that go in a certain way also, they are grooved only on one half of them. Which it didn't tell me in the service manual, and which I didn't think to check. So I did end up answering my own question and am more knowledgeable of the suzuki 2 stroke triple engine. And I double checked and repaired any posable mistakes. Hope this is a help to someone someday.
Thanks guys -Carson
AND I CAN'T WAIT to drive my smoke machine ! ! !

[GTandcbr]

Great news! Sometimes there is nothing else you can do but split the cases and find out what was going on. As you say if this happens to someone else they will have an idea what's wrong. Good luck with the rest of the bike!