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It's been a while, but I seem to remember there being an issue. When we rebuilt the forks on my brothers RD400, his uppers were trashed, but I had a good pair of 350 uppers. IIRC, the 400/350 innards wouldn't cross over. But I don't remember why. We ended up just installing the complete 350 uppers into the 400 lowers.

I guess the moral of the story is: Be aware, it might not be easy, but it wasn't hard to figure out :P

Just a thought.  Perhaps you can put the assembly back in and rotate it with the kick starter and see if there's anything wrong( with the cover off).  Maybe by visual inspection of the moving parts?

I did just that. Thinkin maybe the ratchet mechanism in the kicker was somehow the culprit. Couldn't find anything that appeared out of the ordinary. But if by chance it happens again, I can replace the kicker shaft assembly as well.

Make sure when you kick the bike you kick it hard and follow all the way through. Half arsed kicks and stopping part way can cause the motor to kick back like trying to start backwards and a broken cover is often the result.

Thanks for the info. In the decade and a half that I've been kicking her over, I felt like I'd gotten a feel for it. Basically, I push the kicker down kinda slow until I feel her hit compression. I would then let the kicker return to the top and give it a steady push down through about 75% of the arc. Usually she lights up around the 30% mark, but if not, I'd start the process over again from the beginning. But moving forward, I'll make the mental note of 'don't treat her like a school girl. kick her like a Ho that owes you money.'

"Weird" was about what I said too. Guess I'll put the other cover on and cross my fingers that it was a fluke.
Yes, washers on both ends are there. Thanks for the help Mark ;)

Hey Mark, I'm not seeing any carnage. But since you know what to look for, if you wouldn't mind giving me a second opinion...

Mark, what am I looking for regarding the broken stop? TIA

Thanks Guys, I'm gonna pull the cover tomorrow evening and see how bad the carnage is. Hopefully it's just the cover, but if it took out the case too... looks like I'll be "forced" to buy pistons for the RD350 engine and it will finally go in :P

Was taking my DS7 out of hibernation today. I had kicked her over several times on a handful of sessions, in order to get her to wake up. On what was (coincidently) my last kick, the kicker seemed to bind for a second. I then heard a light "crack" sound as the kicker freed up and followed through. She popped right off and I ran her for a minute or so before shutting off. As I was picking up tools I noticed the puddle of oil under the kicker. Upon further investigation, I realized the engine cover was blown out around the kicker shaft. My questions are... What caused this in the first place? And what, if anything, should I be looking at besides replacing the cover? TIA

Wish I had a spare $25k lying around.

Godspeed Mr Reed.

This was alot of years ago, but a buddy of mine t-boned an 8-10' long gator on a back road one afternoon. He was geared up and faired pretty good, with only a few gnarly bumps and bruises. The bike didn't do so well... bent the front rim, bent the forks, crushed the headpipes, and some rash where it slid. The gator walked away, presumably to go live his best life, as there was no indication that he even noticed the impact.

Now THAT is how you secure a trailer hitch.

I use a front end stand typically used for modern sportbikes. It's narrow enough that it gets under the swingarm with no issues.
Here's a quick pic of the type I use...


I can get you a pic of mine, with the bike on it this afternoon

Just saw this...
Happy Belated Birthday Mark!

"Life is Hard. It's Harder when you're Stupid"