DR650 Kickstart Pawl Woes

[gjutzy]

I am rebuilding my ‘91 DR650 for the second time now.  in 2008 I was starting the bike while out on a ride with some buddies when I got a mean backfire, which wasn’t out of the ordinary, but this time it smashed the kickstart pawl and sent the kickstart lever into the case.  The project went on the back shelf for a while, and about six months ago, I finally got it together again, and got it running.  I had it running for about 10 minutes, and it sounded great!

 

Then, disaster.  I shut it off, and went to restart it.  The same thing that had happened 7 years ago, happened again!  I couldn’t believe it.  Broken pawl, hole in case, the whole nine yards!  Back to the drawing board.

 

So, a new gasket kit, a new kickstart pawl, and a few more hours into it, and I have replaced the thing again. 

 

Anyone have any suggestions so I won't have to do this again?  What could prevent or minimalize such massive backfiring while starting?  I am not really used to the decompression lever, and cannot be sure that I was using it correctly.  I have watched a few youtube videos on the subject, and am pretty sure I have it down now.  Proper valve gap has been suggested, and I am pretty sure I had it done well, but I will be triple checking the valves this time.  Anything else?  I did not rebuild the carb, but I did have it apart and sprayed out all the jets.  It was pretty clean when I had it running for those 10 minutes.