Hitchcocks Forum

As Some of you Know I have Ownend Many an (India) Enfiled over the Years but Never an Electric Start One!!....A Mate has Just aquired a Electra 500 (His First Enfield), He is Concerned about the dreaded "Sprag Clutch"..My advice after Listerning to you Lot X My expireance is:...............
"Start it by the Kick start first Each morning, and Use The electric start when you Stall en Route at the Lights etc or when stop Starting shoping etc ..When its warm or Losened up"...... NOW is This sound Advice?? Am I right??? (Other than Tweaking Carbs,Black Box, Killing Chickens etc).... THANKYOU for any Nice simple answers... ;0) Craig

Craig, not a lot you can do about it just see how it goes, most times the damage is done on switching it off or stalling it at the lights as the motor still has momentum and that is when it kicks back the worst

Hi Norm, thank's...Is the Best advice then use Kick start as Much as you can & Electric Only if you Must then?? Q: Would a Back Fire on the Kick Start affect the SPRAG in anyway??
Cheers Craig

To my mind; Starting the engine isn't the problem, it's stopping it. If the engine is turned off (with the ignition switch), there's a likelihood the crank will 'kick back' and the sprag will force the starter motor to turn backwards (making this funny whining noise). To stop the engine, use the valve lifter, then switch off the ignition.

Resultiing in many small pieces.

In 10000 miles I've only ever used the kickstart twice, just to see if I can. I've never had a problem but my time may well come. I've always turned it off with the key too and have my doubts that the ineffectual valve lifter will be much use in cutting it out, but worth a try. I should use the motor while you can, who knows how long it will last.

Am I missing something here? Kick it? Don't kick it? What is going on? The purpose of the electric starter is to allow you to start the engine without all that physical kicking stuff surely. I currently have in my garage a number of electric start bikes and none of them has got a kick starter fitted. I have had bikes as diverse as Harley Davidson Electra Glides and Road Kings, Honda 400/4's and Hinckley Triumphs and none of them ever "broke a sprag clutch" or failed to start on the button whether it was the first start of the day or because of stalling in traffic. If these are inherent Enfield faults why do you put up with it? As I have said many times in the past if you bought a £250 washing machine for your wife and it failed to start when you pressed a button she would make you take it back. All that hard earned and saved money spent and people seem to accept fundamental component failure. Well if Enfield manage to sell their new bike to the "cafe racer fashionistas" and they suffer this fundamental failure they will find their market vanishing before their eyes.

Taking it back and complaining is fine if it's under warranty but if not then you are stuck with it. Same as an out of warranty washing machine. Choices then are pay for the bits and repair it, live with it or sell up and get something different.

These are Enfields Mike, there are what they are, you either cop it for what it is or walk away, the sprag design was doomed from day one because it was a poor attempt to get them an electric start. As this is an Electra it has a valve lifter not a decomp valve and to fit this lifter the had to cut down the tappet shaft diameter from 9mm to 6mm and this weakened it so that if you start using whilt the motor is running it can snap the tappet and that is a bitch of a job to replace because it involves removing the cam spindle which is not easy without the right tools

And Mike, the cafe racer is a completely different motor which has certainly reduced the starter problems to such an extent that they even dared to bring one out without a kick starter but that idea didn't last too long and they had to revert back to them all having kick starters to compliment the electric start just in case