M33 kickstart problem

[Jim S]

Hi Rog 1

I have a 1949 B33. Attached is a photo of the kick start pinion. You can see that the teeth are quite pointy. I believe this facilitates engagement with the kick start quadrant.
Your pinion appears to have a shape closer to a spur gear that should be permanently engaged with a mating gear.

Jim

[DAVE BRADY]

Good morning Rog1,

Assuming that the image that I have attached is the one you posted as your 'new' one I would be bit concerned about using this.  Comparing with a couple of used ones that I have, it looks like it does not have a good finish.  Although it may not be, it looks very rough and brittle and would probably cause excessive wear to any new kickstart quadrant that you fit

Dave.

[Rog1]

Hi Rog 1

I have a 1949 B33. Attached is a photo of the kick start pinion. You can see that the teeth are quite pointy. I believe this facilitates engagement with the kick start quadrant.
Your pinion appears to have a shape closer to a spur gear that should be permanently engaged with a mating gear.

Jim

hi Jim

the pinion in the photos with the quadrant is the old, worn one. The tips of the teeth have worn off. There's another photo on this thread that show this old one, next to a new (but not very good) one. The quadrant's teeth are square ended, and don't (I realise now) match the pinion's teeth.

Roger

Good morning Rog1,

Assuming that the image that I have attached is the one you posted as your 'new' one I would be bit concerned about using this.  Comparing with a couple of used ones that I have, it looks like it does not have a good finish.  Although it may not be, it looks very rough and brittle and would probably cause excessive wear to any new kickstart quadrant that you fit

Dave.

Hi Dave

I ended up getting another pinion which was rather better, though to be honest I didn't think it was brilliant. There are no photos of it.

Roger

[Rog1]

I thought I'd updated this thread with the final result. I hadn't, so I'll do that now.

I bought a used, but good condition quadrant from a chap in rural France, on Ebay. I put the bike together, but the problem remained. A local rider who has had BSAs for years tried it, pronounced it fine, and better than his own bike. I tried kicking over his B31; it has the same gearbox. He was right. So it's not a problem at all! Doh!

The mystery is, why wasn't it doing it when I first got the bike? Oh well. I now know more about the bike, and the gearbox oil has been changed, though it wasn't too bad before.