Looking for advice on what I may be getting into with a problem thats starting to occur on my Mk2. As it's a pain to start I generally spend a few mins kicking it over, and every so many kicks there is an awful grating noise and the lever goes to the bottom of it's travel without fully engaging. Presumably there are some splines or gears somewhere that are partially stripped but how difficult is it to get to the mechanism and how expensive is it likely to be to fix ? It looks like a side casing off job and if so that raises another question - how do you get the impeller on / off for the water pump ? it's centre is hexed for a spanner but how do you lock the shaft it's on to undo it.....

Help !

Cheers

Ed

Had the same problem on my Mk1 when I first bought it, the problem was the kick start mech was sticking due to old crap oil, I took the clutch cover off, I did not have to touch any water pump parts, just disconnect the hoses, cleaned off as much oil as I could, then cleaned the kick start mech, re fitted the cover & filled with fresh oil.
I now change the oil regularly & have not had the problem since.

think I read somewhere that somebody adds diesel or something to their gearbox oil shortly before draining it to help flush the engine - would this do rather than strip it and clean it ?

I do that, only about 1/2 a cup full and leave it to tick over for 10 mins to get it warm and slosh about, no long thrashes up the road or you will end up with it all sprayed out the overflow

cool ! knew I had read it somewhere before ! Cheers guys - guess what I'll be trying at the weekend if I get the time.

ed if your splines have completley worn out on your kickstart try ELLASTONE OFFROAD they supply mounts parts they will have one in stock i expect. The number is 01889 590186 or mob 07979 983275.