Starter gears always in contact?

[blaat!]

Just finished assembling my kick start on my 250 narrow-case. When I rotate the kick start lever the engine turns over... so far, so good. When I rotate the crank using the connecting rod (the cylinder is still off) I can hear the spring loaded one way starter gears clicking. Are these gears really spring loaded together all the time? I would expect it would be more like a lawn mower starter mechanism where the gears are apart when the engine is running. They are only driven together during the starting pull.

Did I put the assembly together incorrectly?

Thanks!

[double diamond]

Something is assembled incorrectly. The kickstarter gear on the countershaft should ride up on a ramp (that's screwed on to the cases below the K/S shaft) when in the retracted position. This prevents the ratchet mechanism from remaining engaged when the engine is running. Make sure the ramp is in place and that the ramp on the K/S gear is positioned facing inward. Matt

[DewCatTea-Bob]

By: blaat!...
" Just finished assembling my kick start on my 250 narrow-case. When I rotate the kick start lever the engine turns over...
When I rotate the crank using the connecting rod
I can hear the spring loaded one way starter gears clicking.
Are these gears really spring loaded together all the time?

____ NO, of-course not...
The starter-gear has a slide-ramp on it's inner-side which normally slides-up onto a dark-steel wedge-plate (that's bolted to the motor-case with a pair of 6mm flat-head screws), whenever the starter-shaft keeps the starter-gear rotated-back into it's normal/regularly-disengaged position.


" Did I put the assembly together incorrectly? "

____ I'd expect not, (as it ought to be fairly obvious as to exactly how the two rows of starter-teeth should be meshed-up together), however since the starter-gear has more teeth (than the starter-shaft), it's thus-then POSSIBLE to assemble-together the two rows of ks.starter-teeth (of the ks.shaft & gear) with them not properly-meshed in the normal/intended alignment-order,, which likely would then no-longer allow the starter-shaft to still be able to cause the starter-gear to return-back far enough for the "ramp" & "wedge" to combine and fully lift-away the starter-gear's 'drive' engagement-teeth completely out of contact with their corresponding 'driven' engagement-teeth (located on 1st.gear).
__ Also,, it merely could be that you-yourself may-have somehow left things some-certain way so that the ks.lever's return-spring simply hasn't yet been allowed to fully return the ks.shaft back all the way into it's normal/(out of use) position, which of-course would then allow the slanted back-sides of both sets of the engagement-teeth to continue "clicking" against each-other as the motor rotates forward,
(even-so with the starter-gear & shaft's tooth-rows having been properly re-set/matched back-together [with those two rows of starter-teeth aligned-meshed normally as originally intended] ).
__ NOTE: Just to help keep things clearer, there are two different sets (and types) of gear-teeth covered here-above...
The "engagement-teeth" are the 'one-way' type of teeth,, of which, the 'drive-teeth' are found on the back/right-side of the starter-gear, and the 'driven-teeth' are located on the outer/left-side of 1st.gear.
While the "starter-teeth" are the rows of teeth which are found on the outer-circumference of the starter-gear and starter-shaft.
(I make this point above because I've noticed that we have gotten a number of newer members, who may not yet realize that I-MYSELF -(DewCatTea-Bob) most-always intend for MY-own posts to be SENSIBLY well logically-ordered ! _ [Although maybe-not so well, before I've finally signed-off with "DCT" -Bob].)


Happy-DUKEn,
DCT-Bob

[blaat!]

Yep. Thought I was being smart. Rather than aligning the first tooth of the kick start gear into the first recess on the counter-shaft gear as is shown in the manual, I centered the kick start shaft gear on the travel of the counter-shaft gear leaving an extra tooth at each end. Of course that meant that the counter-shaft gear did not return fully and ramp away disengaging the gears. The image below shows it now located correctly. All reassembled and working as it should now. Thanks guys!

IMAG0234.jpg

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" Thought I was being smart. Rather than aligning the first tooth of the kick start gear into the first recess on the counter-shaft gear
I centered the kick start shaft gear on the travel of the counter-shaft gear leaving an extra tooth at each end. "

____ Well at least you had applied some thinking/logic as you had meshed-up that pair of gear-teeth. ...
However that kind of fair-reasoning would-not have been able to come into play, if-only Ducati hadn't inexplicably paired-up those two rows of starter-teeth with such an unequaled number of corresponding teeth. - (Just another example of a quirky-thing that Ducati had allowed to get-through into production, [and possibly lead to confusion], I guess.)


" that meant that the counter-shaft gear did not return fully and ramp away "

____ Right,, since the starter-shaft becomes bottomed-out (against it's stop-plate) before it's return-spring can rotate it any further, your (previously retardedly-set) 'starter-gear' (which is not actually a "counter-shaft gear", [but just merely located on that shaft] ), therefore couldn't be forced to rotate-back far enough for it's ramp to fully encounter the disengaging wedge-plate, (which then had left your engagement-teeth "clicking" together).


" The image below shows it now located correctly. "

____ Quite true, (as your two rows of k.starter-teeth are currently now indeed shown meshed-together as originally intended),, however, your posted-pic has somehow been left to appear rather upside-down.
I'll post an adjusted-version of your pic.
__ BTW, it's obviously apparent that you have the fairly dreaded leaf-spring setup (with a std.sized washer under the head of it's hold-down bolt)...
So I'd suggest that you (at least) add a 'fender-washer' (under the std.washer, [or a lock-washer],, and also along-with a longer bolt, as well), so as to then help back-up the rather weak leaf-springs, (before they get a chance to become bent-up & sprung-out, during a possible excessive kick-back).


Dukaddy-DUKEs,
-Bob