RGM folding kickstart lever not fitting

Yes the stock one fits fine and the RGM fits nicely to a point and then stops. I am goin to attempt to clean up the shaft splines and maybe relieve some of the splines on the RGM in the area of the bolt.

The RGM ones are a very tight fit. As a result, any discrepancy's in the kickstart shaft is much more likely to show itself.

Have you tried gently opening it up a tad ?

Fast Eddie said:

The RGM ones are a very tight fit. As a result, any discrepancy's in the kickstart shaft is much more likely to show itself.

Have you tried gently opening it up a tad ?

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Yes, see post 8, pretty sure I had to do same the first time with the RGM and for others too. You have to have a tight fit on the splines and a good hi tensile bolt to keep the splines on shaft and the kicker in good condition.

I would use all of that 1/8" gap and then see where I was at.

Slick

I installed an RGM KS lever a couple of weeks ago. It was a pain. I believe that this batch of parts supplied to RGM may be a little off spec.

Before installation, the pinch-bolt would screw in/out with fingers. Once you spread the gap with a screwdriver or whatever, the pinch bolt will not catch the threads on the other side of the gap, I think because the angle is now different. One cannot get the lever on the shaft without spreading the gap, at least on the part I received.

On installation I managed to get the supplied bolt to catch the threads, though on a bind, and I turned the bolt in all but the last quarter inch or so with a long handled ratchet. On disassembly, I found that something had carved off the bolt's threads except for the 3/8" on the end. Now having stretched the KS bore of the lever somewhat, even with the wedge removed and off the bike, I could not turn the bolt to catch the screw threads.

My solution was to enlarge the pinch bolt hole with a chainsaw file. This is easier said than done as the metal is awfully tough and the chrome plating is hard and thick. The plating may be part of the problem. It looks like the inside of the bolt hole was plated. I couldn't tell about the threads but had they been plated the bolt would probably not screw in at all.

In the end I had an enlarged hole and a ruined bolt. I tried a 3/8 UNF bolt and it would screw in from the opposite end but not through the bolt hole. So I was able to use the ruined bolt which now has a slightly smaller diameter in the area where it passes the KS shaft. It is not ideal as the bolt is much weaker but I got it together and in a dozen starts the bolt has not broken yet. I believe that the distance between the pinch-bolt hole and the KS shaft hole is too small by as much as 0.030." In conclusion, there are three problems. 1) the pinch-bolt hole is too tight to allow for the angle change when the gap is spread on installation 2) the pinch bolt hole is too close to the KS shaft and 3) the plater did not blank off the pinch-bolt hole before plating.

Other than these fitting issues the part seems well made and well finished and works fine on my Atlas, though for esthetic reasons I would like to see a bit of a curve in it.

FWIW, I had no issues fitting an RGM Kickstart lever on my Atlas.

Slick

Have never had a problem with mine in the 13+ years, my stock kicker use to come lose after 2 or 3 kicks on the spline, the RGM folding kicker has never come lose on the spline but once every so often I have to tighten the folding arm bolt.

ashman said:

Have never had a problem with mine in the 13+ years, my stock kicker use to come lose after 2 or 3 kicks on the spline, the RGM folding kicker has never come lose on the spline but once every so often I have to tighten the folding arm bolt.

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Me too re folding arm bolt

ashman said:

Have never had a problem with mine in the 13+ years, my stock kicker use to come lose after 2 or 3 kicks on the spline, the RGM folding kicker has never come lose on the spline but once every so often I have to tighten the folding arm bolt.

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I'm faily sure that they have them made in relatively small batches. About half the time when I look, they are out of stock. I would not be shocked to find them different in each batch. I consider them worth the trouble but am annoyed each time I fight one nonetheless! 13+ years ago, I worked much better too and I was all human - no bionic parts The technology in my replaced right hip is WAY beyond that of my replaced left and my right hip works a lot better for it!

I was hoping this would be an easy task, to simply install a new KS lever. I should know by now that hoping and reality never seem to come together. Comforting to know I am not alone in my frustration. I will either have it sorted by this weekend or I will be using the old one. Keep your eyes open. It may go cheap.

If your spline is in good condition the RGM one should just slide on with light taps with a soft face hammer and once on all the way where it should sit then to put the bolt in, that's how I did mine all them years ago, no need to ply the cut away open.

ashman said:

If your spline is in good condition the RGM one should just slide on with light taps with a soft face hammer and once on all the way where it should sit then to put the bolt in, that's how I did mine all them years ago, no need to ply the cut away open.

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I've put recent ones on brand new kickstart shafts and they would not begin to slide on without work! And, once part way on they required even more work. The splines in them wrap around much closer to the bolt than the originals and there is little to no relief at the rear of the spines where the originals I've checked have 2-2.5mm, and when I've received some of them, the bolts were tight, and the gap was closed and barely opened when the bolt was removed. I've also installed them that came with bad threads and with bolts that were too short and only engaged the threads about two turns.

I have no doubt that you had no problem and that others have had no problem. In fact, I've had no problem with two of them. The rest were from hard to nearly impossible to put on. One took a couple of hours with a diamond triangle file and some Demel work and that was on a brand-new shaft that had absolutely no trouble with a brand-new standard lever from AN.

Well maybe they were better back 13+ years ago when I brought mine, but I have a mate who only recently brought one and he had no troubles putting it on, it was harder to get the old one off than putting the new one on.

ashman said:

Well maybe they were better back 13+ years ago when I brought mine, but I have a mate who only recently brought one and he had no troubles putting it on, it was harder to get the old one off than putting the new one on.

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Again, I have no doubt that some are no problem. IMHO, there is NO quality control of that part of the lever. Thankfully, the rest of the lever seems well made but it really doesn't matter if the rest isn't consistent - only the mounting needs to match the new or 50+ year old part!

Is it High Level Quality kind?

What concerns me is if RGM have not replied to the OP about his problem.
I've been dealing with them since 2010 or so and have _always_ had really good service from them, any questions or quibbles have been quickly sorted.
I really hope that this is not a sign of changed times, I would be most disappointed if this was the case.

Has the OP tried to contact RGM again though?

SteveBorland said:

What concerns me is if RGM have not replied to the OP about his problem.
I've been dealing with them since 2010 or so and have _always_ had really good service from them, any questions or quibbles have been quickly sorted.
I really hope that this is not a sign of changed times, I would be most disappointed if this was the case.

Has the OP tried to contact RGM again though?

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On here recently it was said that a staff member had left RGM
And they were swamped with work

SteveBorland said:

What concerns me is if RGM have not replied to the OP about his problem.
I've been dealing with them since 2010 or so and have _always_ had really good service from them, any questions or quibbles have been quickly sorted.
I really hope that this is not a sign of changed times, I would be most disappointed if this was the case.

Has the OP tried to contact RGM again though?

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I have not tried a 2nd time but I am about to and will mention this thread. I am also concerned with no reply as I sent an email to them on Sunday.

concours said:

Is it High Level Quality kind?
View attachment 113962

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Appears to be high quality but not the same one as this.

Cuppy said:

I have not tried a 2nd time but I am about to and will mention this thread. I am also concerned with no reply as I sent an email to them on Sunday.

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You'd probably do better phoning
I don't think they have any time for emails