2007 Kawasaki KLX 250s Kick Starter Install

I received the kit from Kawasaki.



Everything in the kit is pretty well labeled, except for the bag that contains an assortment of clips, washers, a bolt and some other bits and pieces.
Like Finger Mullet I laid all the little pieces out on a piece of paper and identified everything.
My twist to this step was I traced the parts out on a piece of paper so I could place them over the tracing and identify the parts during assembly.

Overall it was a pretty easy (but scary) install made easy by having some specialized tools.

• Air Powered Impact Wrench - My Air Powered Impact wrench is the cheapy Harbor Freight one
• TWO Torque wrenches. My two Torque wrenches are made by Utica and I've had them for YEARS!
  
  • One that has INCH Pounds and one that has FOOT Pounds.
  
• Circlip and needle nose pliers.
• Sockets and extensions as needed.
• PitPosse stand. Having the raised stand makes a HUGE difference in doing the work.
  
  

Ok, so here we go. How'd I do it?

1. Get your space ready. I have all the tools that I need within easy reach.
   
2. I drained all the fluids (Coolant and Oil) BEFORE I placed my KLX on the stand.
   • For the coolant there is a little bolt on the underside of the water-pump housing.
   • For the Oil, there is the oil drain bolt.
   
   
3. I removed the RIGHT footrest.
   
   
   
   
4. I disconnected the rear brake light bracket and brake pedal. I disconnected the rear brake pedal from the rear brake cylinder too.
   
5. I disconnected the clutch cable from the clutch actuator arm and disconnected the mounting arm where it connects to the right side engine case.
   
6. I disconnected the Oil Pipe banjo bolt where it comes into the right side engine case.
   
7. I removed the Water Pump Housing, exposing the Water Pump Impeller.
   
   
   
   The water pump impeller is a sharp little guy that is impossible to grip.
   You have to take the impeller bolt and impeller off to remove the engine case.
   Here is where the Air Impact Wrench is perfect!
   Because you don't want to damage anything by gripping the impeller, the AIR impact wrench will spin it off without any damage to anything.
   
   
   
   You also want to be EXTREMELY careful here in that there is a ceramic bushing/seal with a spring that seals around the impeller shaft.
   You mess that up, and it's game over.
   
   
8. When the impeller and water pump housing is off, you can start to remove the right side case.
   You don't have to take the smaller clutch cover off, especially since there is no gasket for it in the kit.
   All the bolts are identical except for two longer bolts.
   
   
   
   
9. When you have removed the right side case, and have taken the clutch plunger out, this is what it looks like.
   
   
   
   
10. Next I took off the clutch basket with the Air Impact Wrench. The nut came off easy with the Air Impact Wrench!!!
    The clutch basket will come off without tools and you don't have to touch any of the clutch spring bolts.
    
    
    
    There is a little "Gotcha Spacer" that you need to watch out for!
    
    
    When you took the Clutch basket off, the whole thing came out.
    Since you never saw the "Gotcha Spacer", you were not aware that it fell down into the basket!
    I took the whole clutch assembly and placed it down.
    I didn't know about the "Gotcha Spacer" until I was putting everything back together and I heard a "Clink" when I moved everything around.
    Thank goodness I said "Hey ...something sounds loose in there!".
    On close inspection I noticed there was a spacer freely moving around between the outer basket and the friction plate assembly.
    That could have been disaster!!!
    Gotcha!!!


11. When you have the clutch basket off, here is what things look like.
    
    
    
    
12. In honor of Finger Mullet, I installed the Kick Starter Guide first.
    
    
    
    
13. Next, you are going to put two assemblies together and place them in position.
    
    • The Idle Gear Assembly
    • The Kick Starter Assembly
    
    
    If you had done the prep step of knowing exactly where everything goes from the "little bag of tricks", this should go pretty easy.
    However there are two main "gotchas" in the assemblies.
    

    ---

    • The first gotcha is with the Idle Gear Assembly.
      The Idle Gear Assembly looks easy enough; a couple of spacers and a circlip..right?
      Look closely where the Idle Gear is supposed to go.
      Test fitting the assembly reveals a WTF?
      Looking closer, you see that Kawasaki has put a spacer in where the Idle gear used to go when KLX250's came with a kick starter.
      It's held there by a circlip!
      
      
      
      REMOVE the SPACER and CIRCLIP.
      Put your Idle Gear Assembly in it's place!
      You now have two (the Old Circlip and Spacer) of three "Extra Parts" that you will have when you are finished!

    ---

    • The second gotcha is pretty much the ENTIRE Kick starter assembly.
      Maybe take a break here, as this was the place that had the most potential to go wrong.
      As you put everything together, you have to make sure the Kick Gear and Ratchet Gear are lined up on each other.
      
      
      

      I know my nails are dirty...I'm working on my bike!

      
      The Spring on the Kick start Shaft was the REAL pain.
      I had read about Finger Mullet saying make sure you tension the spring, but I didn't quite understand.
      
      I got it wrong the first time. I should have taken a little longer to understand how the mechanism works.
      If you just line up the holes and put the spring in there, there won't be enough force to bring the kick starter arm back to vertical.
      
      It will "look" like it will work, but the kickstart arm will just "kick" and lay there below the bike.
      I did it wrong the first time. I put EVERYTHING back together, refilled all the fluids and when I kicked the kickstarter...it just lay there.
      You could hear a pin drop.
      
      I then screamed at the TOP of my LUNGS!!!!
      Thankfully my Husband was there and talked me back into sanity.
      
      Good thing I didn't have to take everything off and start from scratch.
      If you do mess up the spring tension after everything is back together, DON'T FREAK...relax and do it again.
      (You can fix the spring tension without having to take the Clutch Basket off again.)
      
      Bottom line is this;
      

      Make sure the spring wants to snap the kick starter lever back to vertical.

      
      
14. When you have the Idle Gear Assembly and the Kick Starter Shaft Assembly together and in place, it's time to reinstall the clutch basket.
    Remember the "Gotcha Spacer" and make sure it's on the shaft correctly.
    The cool thing about the KLX is that the clutch plate assembly slides out of the basket without you having to take the plates out.
    It's easy to make sure the "Gotcha Spacer" is where it's supposed to be when you put the basket together.
    
15. When the clutch basket is on, (is the washer that sits under the nut have it's concave shape facing the engine/basket?), you will have to torque the nut. DO NOT USE the Air Impact Wrench to tighten!
    What I did (at the advice of a Kawasaki mechanic) was remove the LEFT side plug and put a socket on that nut while I torque the right side clutch Basket nut.

    It worked perfectly!

    
    
    
    
    
16. When the clutch basket is torqued, you will next install the right side cover/lower again.
    Before you do that you will have to take/punch out the "Kick starter Plug" so the Kick starter Shaft will be able to pass through the right side lower.
    You will also want to clean the machined surfaces for the new gasket(s) since the old gasket(s) will be torn and stuck in various places.
    While you are cleaning the old gasket material off the lower cover, you might as well also to do the Water Pump Gasket too.
    
17. Carefully put the right lower cover back on.
    Pay attention to the water pump shaft and seal.
    Pay attention to the oil passages.
    Watch the Guide pins.
    Is the O-ring still on the water pump shaft?
    Does the NEW gasket fit perfectly?
    
18. Put all bolts back in making sure you put the two long bolts from the removal steps in their correct place.
    Torque the bolts with the small torque wrench since it will be in INCH Pounds.
    
19. Re-install the Water Pump Impeller and torque the impeller nut. DO NOT USE the Air Impact Wrench to tighten!!!
    The Water Pump impeller nut will be able to be torqued to specification without any problem or need to grasp the impeller.
    
20. Re-install the water Pump Housing (and NEW gasket) and torque the bolts.
    
21. Re-install the Oil pipe Banjo Bolts
    
22. Re-install the Clutch Cable and bracket
    
23. Re-Install the Foot pegs, rear brake lever and anything else that you took off.
    
24. When you are done it should look like this.
    
    
    
    
25. Fill the bike up with Oil and Coolant again.
    
26. When you are finished you will have the "Extra Pieces" you see here.
    
    
    
    

You will be tempted to put the key into the ignition and fire/kickstart the bike.
MAKE SURE THE KICKSTARTER WORKS CORRECTLY FIRST!!!

You mess that up, and it's game over.

That's it!

Now for the disclaimer.