400ex kickstart?

[HondaHurley]

Hey does anyone know if a 2000 400ex comes with kickstart? cause the one i got looks like you can put one on it...sorry that this is a dumb question

[buck440]

come on man, seriously, of course not. i wish it did but you probably see the circle on the mid bottom of the motor, its for looks, but i also back then wondered the same thing too.

[HondaHurley]

well thats lame :rolleyes: so looks like im stuck with the good old push start huh

[2muchquad]

actually the 400ex is derived from the xr400 dirt bike,which is kick.Im sure if one was dead set opn making it a kick it could be done.how much time and money is it worth is the question.That wasnt a dumb question by the way;)

[f4istunna]

i know a guy that was trying to make something work from xr parts. I havent talked to him in awhile ill have to get in touch and see how he made out. I dont really think the time/money would be worth it though honestly

[deathman53]

Someone did use xr parts to make it work, the problem is that kicker won't clear the frame, the shaft comes out almost right on a frame tube. Its no secret, the 400ex quick change covers are xr400 covers that the kick start hole is nicely welded up. Same problem with putting a xr400 motor in a 400ex, motor will fit right in, kicker won't fit due to the frame. If a 400ex came with a kicker, I'd consider buying one. I refuse to buy an atv/dirtbike that is ONLY electric start.

[f4istunna]

I hear ya. Electric only quads always seem to need push started at least once in its life lol

[deathman53]

I had enough with that on the yamaha warrior I had. The only time I needed to be pull started with a kicker, is when somehow the kicker fell off the pivot. And that was with a nearly 20 year old and sloppy kick starter.

[2muchquad]

warrior had a recoil back up in its early years...

[deathman53]

Yes, it did. However install it, as I did and try to pull it, easier said than done. If you get the parts from the older warriors with the pull start(they had different parts in the head for decompression), I'm sure it would pull easy, but w/o the decompression parts and a 1.25:1 piston, its very hard.

[sc400ex_rider]

yes someone did do it i got all the info from him. its a pain in the azzzz he accually went back to electric start cause he was runnin a 15.1 comp piston and it was very hard to start. the reason he did it was to remove the oneway bearing witch is 2 lbs of weight added to the flywheel. that is why the ex dont run like the xr400 motor. the kicker clearance was not an issue he just cut/bent it at an angle and welded it back together. the same with the rear brake lever he got 2 and cut them up and welded it back together thus clearing the kicker shaft. he also put a bracket and a bearing on it to support it. the reason why no one else could do it is because the xr400 side cover would not fit the bigger ex stator (its bigger for the electric start to charge the battery) he simply welded a cover on the hole where the starter went in. this guy is a genius he had pics and all but some punk named 250x kyle called him a lier and said he photoshoped the kicker on there. if you search the 400ex forum you might find it it been 2-3 years ago, he was the one who tough me how to cut my flywheel down. someone plz save this cause im tired of telling this story.

i say somewhere a how to on this and they said it was a 35% power gain because so much was able to be taken off the flywheel and it made everything lighter. i wouldnt mind if the power gain was that good you wont need a battery either so more weigh taken off. sometimes i see kickstart people stuggle and thats when i think i'm glad i have electric start