72 kawasaki recoil? spacers?

[burningmetalmaniac]

I recently bought a 72 I think, has a t5a engine on it, but the previous owner was a hack. the flywheel has fins missing, chewed on the whole outside edge, wrong nut on crank, and lots of washers spacing the recoil cage away from the flywheel. Are there supposed to be spacers in between them? it starts now that I reset the points, but when I rev it, the rope starts coming out and sparks come out of the screen around it. I've checked the olsen bros website and it doesn't show any spacers. any help?

[Jonn]

The T5A is from the year 1972, if it's the original engine for the chassis. Before asking any followup questions, I'm guessing that whoever tried to fix this put the wrong recoil on the engine. The 1998 and 1999 recoil is narrower therefore moving the ratchet (dogs) closer to the flywheel. The original starter pulley (starter cup) is much larger on all engines prior to 1998. People who put the newer recoil on the older starter pulley find that the ratchet (dogs) don't line up properly and have to shim the heck out of the recoil. If this is the case, you have a couple options.

1) Replace the recoil with the correct recoil. The retail cost is about $100 (currently my price is a little less). 2) It's easier to replace the starter pulley for about $11 than to replace the recoil with the correct one. Replacing the starter pulley isn't as easy because the mounting holes are a little off center. This requires you to elongate the mounting holes slightly to fit the pulley to the flywheel. Although this option is not as easy as option #1, it's much cheaper. You still might need to use a washer or two between the recoil and cooling cover to get proper alignment between the ratchets (dogs) and the starter pulley, but it's only one or two and you won't really see much of a change.

As for the fan, if there's much damage I'd replace it because otherwise it will cause the engine to run off balanced. Email me if you need a fan as I think I have a couple here for that engine. It's probably around $15-$20.

Question: Is the recoil that's on the engine black? Are the ratchets (dogs) made of steel or plastic? (The 1998-9 recoil is black and has wide plastic dogs.)

Let me know if you have any other questions about this.

jonn@obups