Ok, so my recently acquired 82 FT500 has a shaft for the Kickstarter already installed. However, it does not have the kick arm/lever. Going to find one from an XR500 on eBay. It also does not have a compression release. I would need to find one correct? The bike has 7000 miles and looks like it has never spent a night outside. It's impossibly clean. Definitely the cleanest bike I've bought in the last decade. And of course, my starter doesn't work. I'm getting a click off the solenoid, so I'll be digging into that today. I was able to start it by rolling it down the drive way a few times and bumping it. Fired right up and settled into a nice idle almost immediately.
Should I find a compression release? Found a few videos of ones mounted off the right side of the valve cover. I've also seen a bar mounted lever. What should I be looking for and why isn't one needed with an electric start? Off to the tech section
