For anyone looking for a new kick starter shaft for their JT,HT and LT including MX models i have a solution for you. After hunting for a JT60 shaft i found a fella in the Facebook groups who sent me a used one but also mentioned its the same as the LT. Im going to point out that the HT and LT use the exact same shaft. After receiving the JT shaft, i dug out my used LT shaft and measured everything up and sure enough everything was exactly the same EXCEPT on the HT/LT shaft, the hole that's drilled for the kicker return spring is drilled all the way through on the HT/LT where on the JT its only half way through. This as i confirmed makes no difference in its operation but if you wanted you could always drill it the rest of the way on a JT and the new shaft that im going to mention here.

If you look at the parts diagrams on babbitts or partzilla you will see that the part number for the HT and LT shafts start with 99999. This isnt exactly correct. That number is for the entire kick assembly not the shaft alone. The number for just the shaft that your looking for is 305-15660-00-00. As for the JT diagram the number is correct but you can never find any and if you do their all beat up.

Using the number I provided you'll see on eBay that there are new shafts being made for the HT/LT over seas. I ordered one to use for my JT because again everything is the same but that hole for the return spring so there's no reason it shouldn't work.

Once the new shaft arrived i immediately saw it wasn't quite right. The stopper is thicker, the shaft is a little longer on the stopper side, the hole for the return spring is drilled only half way through and the worm gear that the kicker gear rotates on is a bit shorter. All these issues are not off by a whole lot, like 2-5mm approximately. On the plus side the stopper isn't pressed on but actually machined as one entire piece with the shaft, so no more coming loose from abuse over the years.

Because of these slight issues the kick starter gear will NOT clear the idler gear when assembled. To fix this so it can work you will need access to a lathe. You need to make the stopper thinner and then shorten the shaft on the stopper side so that it can slide back far enough into the case to clear the idler gear. Since i had both an original LT and JT shaft in front of me I simply eye balled it as I was cutting it down. I probably only took off anywhere from 3-6mm. You can determine exactly how much by measuring your original to the new one while you cut. I should also mention that after shortening the shaft i put a small tapper on the end like the original had. There is no need to drill the return spring hole all the way through.

I assembled the new cut down shaft into my JT60 and sure enough the kicker gear cleared the idler and it kicks over just fine even with the shorter worm gear. I rode it around today, no grinding noises coming from under the clutch cover and now i have a brand new shaft for my JT but will also work in the HT and LT models as well. I have pictures but because of site issues i cannot upload those at this time but i will when the issues gets resolved.
 

Thanks for posting! 

I try to help when i can Mark and i know this is going to help quite a few people. I should note that im going to try and get ahold of the manufacturer in hopes of getting these made correctly so then we can just toss it right in there without having to machine it. Its a good shaft but its just not quite the right specs.