In '81, Yamaha cheapened up the kicker assembly, made the whole thing lighter and more spindly. The worst aspect of this was a smaller "foot". Obviously, this is what came on my '83 and I found it not as easy to use as the larger, older style on my '78. So, I decided to "upgrade" it. The earlier older kickers had a straight arm but around '79 Yamaha added a slight bend to it so it tucked in nicer. This is what I was after so off to eBay I went, lol. I found a nice '79 kick arm for about $20. It was the arm only but that was OK because I had a splined clamp part from a junky '77 kicker that came on a parts motor. The '77 arm was pretty badly rusted and also the earlier straight style I didn't want .....
So, all the parts were cleaned up and the '79 arm was drilled and tapped for a grease fitting .....
Then the parts were greased up and assembled. As an aside, I discovered that the detent ball is the same 5/16" ball used with the clutch pushrods .....
And here's the original '83 kicker compared to the earlier "big foot" version. Not only is the foot bigger but so is everything else - arm diameter, splined clamp, and although difficult to see, splined clamp pivot post for the arm .....
I'm quite happy with the results. I can really put my foot into this thing now, much better than before, lol.
So, all the parts were cleaned up and the '79 arm was drilled and tapped for a grease fitting .....
Then the parts were greased up and assembled. As an aside, I discovered that the detent ball is the same 5/16" ball used with the clutch pushrods .....
And here's the original '83 kicker compared to the earlier "big foot" version. Not only is the foot bigger but so is everything else - arm diameter, splined clamp, and although difficult to see, splined clamp pivot post for the arm .....
I'm quite happy with the results. I can really put my foot into this thing now, much better than before, lol.
