- Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:05 am
#17953
Hi Eddie. No. What I am saying is that the piston is first set at the TDC of the firing stroke (not the exhaust stroke). Normal practice is to edge the piston just past the top and kick away but with that technique, I have found that the full swing of the kickstart does not take the piston around two revolutions back to the firing stroke which is the one you will hope to fire and start the engine…I know what you are going to say and that is the flywheel inertia will take it round, BUT ....what I have discovered, is that if you start the kickstart swing with the piston further round the 4 stroke cycle, kickbacks can be reduced dramatically simply because the flywheels are being moved positively and have not slowed by the compression stroke before being fired. By testing, you can find a START position of the kickstart that has moved the piston further round the 4 stroke cycle so that the firing point is reached JUST before the range of the kickstart swing finishes. By doing so, the flywheel is moving at the fastest possible rate that you can kick it at as it has been driven all the way positively rather than allowing the inertia to try to compress the gas which slows up the flywheels too much and allows the kickback. By meeting the firing point at the END of a hefty swing, gives little chance of kickback occurring. Kickbacks occur because the flywheel speed is too slow to carry the piston past the ignition point. For low compression engines or small capacity ones, the normal "just passed TDC" method works fine (mostly) but engines with big bore kits and HC pistons might avoid brutal kickbacks if you try the method I describe. It works reliably for me, and has transformed an evil brute to a docile pussy and I was hoping others might get the benefit. If it doesn't work for you or you don’t have any problems with kickbacks, then this is all irrelevant but I am pretty sure someone will benefit.
