Topic: kick starter engagement cb550

[steamnjn23]

hey guys,
i have lurked here for several days reading everything i can read, but i have a small problem.

a friend bought a seized/wrecked 1976 cb550 for the pure enjoyment of dismantling it, to discover what a motorcycle engine was like. (his cost $100)
after dis-assembly, i mentioned to him that i thought we could replace the damaged parts and have a running bike. well i got laid off and returned to Georgia from North Carolina with his bike in pieces in boxes, with a service manual in hand.  he returned to Tennessee and i update him regularly on my progress, with pictures and brief discriptions.

here is the problem:  after installing rings, gaskets, new cam chain and tensioner, i was setting the timing on the breaker plate, and had the bright idea to put the kick start lever on the shaft, and manually ease the engine around to the marks.  what i discovered was that the kick starter wasnt engaging and rotating the engine.  i removed the oil pan, using the service manual and some of my assembly pictures and checked all geariing, making sure everything was right, and according to the manual everything is right, but i still have no engagement of the kick starter.  to clarify, when i operate the kickstarter, the complete mechanism operates as designed, and ratchets back as it should, but it doesnt connect and rotate the engine.

would ya'll explain what i'm missing here, and since this is my first engine you'll have to make it simple. 
i can post my photos if you need to see them...

-greg-

[fastbroshi]

  I've seen inside mine a little bit, but never investigated much what engages what to make it work.  From what I remember on the one I took out of my spare motor, the end opposite the side with the splined shaft has teeth on it that'll let it freewheel one way and when turned the other they will lock onto...something else.
  Can you see these teeth engaging anything?  Pics would definitely help.  Paulages should know, he's intimate with the insides of his 550's motor.

[Alan F.]

does pulling the clutch lever in change things?

[Gorms]

Are you in gear?

[Gordon]

The 550 needs to be in Neutral with the clutch engaged for the kick-start to work.  Is this how you're doing it?

[Gorms]

by "engaged" you mean clutch lever out.

[Gordon]

by "engaged" you mean clutch lever out.

By "engaged" I mean that the clutch plates are in contact with each other so that the transmission and crankshaft are rotating in unision.  This also happens to be when the clutch lever is in its resting state, or "out".

[steamnjn23]

currently the engine is on my work bench, with the clutch basket mocked up, and no cables attached. 
must the clutch assembly be operational as suggested in a previous reply? 
i can do this, but at this point i wanted to stop and ask before i installed the engine into the frame again.

please look over the photos, and see if i'm missing anything, or if i just need to take the assembly a step or two farther.

[TwoTired]

Clutch discs must be in friction mode, plates locked together, for the kick starter to work on the 550.