[tripleup05]

Hey fellas.

My '05 became really hard to kick in the middle of a ride. Upon taking the valve cover off, I noticed the weight looked out of place. I barely touched it, and the weight, spring, and washer flew off. Is the spring supposed to have a tang on both sides of it? If so, you can clearly see one side has broken off. Would this be the cause of the bike being super hard to kick through the compression stroke?

[Harkon]

Looks like you have a broken spring to me. That would make it a bear to kick over for sure.

[crfsonly]

a broken spring can cause damage to the decomp shaft. always good idea to replace it when doing top end maintenance.

[tripleup05]

a broken spring can cause damage to the decomp shaft. always good idea to replace it when doing top end maintenance.

I don't think it damaged the decomp shaft. With that said, I don't know where the broken part of the spring is. Now I'm wishing I would have gotten a tow out of the woods instead of riding it out. I'm hoping it went down the timing chain hole and is stuck to the stator, easy to find. We'll see!

And yep...I wish someone would have told me to replace that spring when doing the top end before I did it a few months ago! I replaced a few wear n' tear odds and ends while I was in there, but I didn't think about that spring. Oh well...live and learn.

[crfsonly]

yeah...it's just cheap insurance.

[tripleup05]

I'm finally getting around to installing a new spring, but as I went to put it in, I realized I have no idea how it goes. I know it might be difficult, but can someone explain it? Thanks!