The photo below shows the cause of my recent plea for help to find a replacement inner s/a gearbox cover. Thanks again to Edboy for coming up trumps - within an hour! Without his help we, the boys and I, would have missed our cross channel ferry for sure.
I've not seen this type of failure before but wonder if anyone else has.
Please forgive any inaccuracy in the following but I'm just having to learn the fine details of the kickstart mechanism.
The gearbox in question is fitted with a '1-o-clock' quadrant, which results in the end stop being reached well before the bottom of the kicking stroke. When my son Matt (a big lad, not used to riding these old bikes) enthusiastically swung on the kickstarter we were both surprised to see a puddle of gearbox oil quickly form under the bike. On closer examination the reason became clear, as you can see.
I'm just now getting back to finding out whether the same can be avoided in future without changing to an '11-o-clock' quadrant, less convenient for the rearset footrests.