Mk5 kickstart spring

[dalgrae]

Hi as the kickstart on my Mk5 sometimes does not return I am thinking the return spring might be passed its best,it looks to have been there for a lot of years ,assuming club spares have a replacement  spring how difficult is it to remove the cotter pin,I thought I would undo the nut until it was flush with the thread and use a metal drift and hammer ,if does not move is it a case of drilling it out,if a replacement cotter pin is not available from club spares where am I likely to get a replacement pin from .
Any advice most welcome

Regards. Colin

[eddie]

Colin,
         The cotter pin will come out easier if you undo the nut, then pull the kick start lever up against the stop before trying to drive the pin out. Replacement cotter pins can usually be obtained from bicycle shops (pedal crank cotters). If you have a local, long established bicycle shop, they may even stock cotters without the flat (so that you can tailor the fit to suit your kickstart).

  Regards,
                Eddie.

[dalgrae]

Thank you Eddie

Regards. Colin

[douglas1947]

Hi Colin,

Eddie has informed you the way you have to put the cotter pin out.
I will tell you, that on 3 gearboxes I worked on, no you bought cotter pin fitted perfect.
They allways had a too big flat.
In the end I made the pins by myself.
So Eddies idea to look for a pin without flat may be very good!

Michael

[eddie]

Yes, in the old days when bicycles were 'hand built', it would have been standard practice to file the cotter pins to suit each assembly. Another problem us Douglas owners have is that Mr Douglas did not use the same standard as BSA, Triumph, Etc. with regard to the distance from the kickstart shaft hole to the cotter pin hole, so invariably, 'standard cotters' have too large a flat for our purposes.

  Regards,
                Eddie.

[dalgrae]

Am I remembering things  all wrong,I seem to recall looking at a cotter pin end on and the thread is not concentric with the rest of the pin ,if it was I could make one ,if not I will phone a couple of the local bike shops ,but most are fairly new so I may come up empty .

Thanks for he advice

Regards. Colin

[eddie]

An eccentric thread is not a problem - just mount the bar in the lathe with a piece of packing under 1 jaw!

  Eddie.

[Rex]

Back when I was an enthusiastic builder and rider of push-bikes cotter pins always needed filing to fit properly, but the last time I tried to buy some it was impossible...all cranks have been "cotterless" for years.

[dalgrae]

Hi thanks for all the replies ,the last time I fitted one was to a Bristol VR bus to secure the king pin during my time at Bristol Commercial Vehicles ,and they were big.

Regards. Colin