The kick start gear on my Lodola is pretty worn, mainly the first 4 teeth, I was thinking of building them up with weld and filing them to shape. I don’t know wether weld will be strong enough to last any length of time. Opinions please!
It can be done but you will have to harden the teeth after shaping. Have yo thought about drilling out the three rivits and turning the toothed segment around? You could still weld and shape the worn teeth but the main stress/wear would not be on the repair. …
Try a hard-facing rod for an arc welder maybe?
Ian
Thanks for the ideas. I had thought of removing the rivets but there is a step one side to bring the gear off centre and by turning it round it would not line up with its mating gear correctly. I’ve not heard of hard facing rod. If I used an ordinary rod how would I harden the teeth?
You would need to case harden it http://www.technologystudent.com/equip1/heat2.htm
P.S. the first quench can be in engine oil
That’s very helpful, thanks. Having had a good think ( plenty of time to do that at the moment!) I’ve thought about grinding off the damaged teeth and filling in the red hatched area to move the good teeth in a position to engage.
I assume that getting a replacement part would not be possible?
I haven’t managed to find a new part as yet. I’m going to practice building up teeth on another damaged gear (bsa bantam, a bit more expendable!) and see how I get on. Many thanks for your input.
Can’t find any other pictures, but seems to me that the first tooth is a shallow hump shape on purpose? I.e. not damaged that much ergo the others aren’t that damaged either. Does this definitely not work, or is it just that you believe it shouldn’t be used as is? I’d be loath to start hacking things about unless there’s absolutely no alternative, or it’s useless anyway so no loss if it all goes pear-shaped.
Except it will be a loss, due to non-availablity of a spare…
Triumph Kick start quadrants always have the first tooth part missing. It is supposed to aid engagement.
It may not be so obvious from the photos but first three teeth have a much lower profile, the fourth tooth has a chunk missing, the second tooth doesn’t engage properly, I’m concerned left as it is the gear it engages with will suffer damage and give me an even bigger problem.
OK, missed the chunk missing, not working well then.
The quadrant does not look to have involute profile teeth so a competent engineer could make a new one.
A flame hardening steel would be suitable I suggest like EN16 in old spec. Alan Barker could give you some advice re suitable material
Thanks for all the help and advice, I’ve welded the broken tooth and filed to shape, ground down the first 2 very rounded teeth, I’ll try the hardening process suggested and see how things go. When normality resumes I can look for a replacement.