'83 1100E engine knock on cold starts

[browe58]

I'm glad it's no longer doing it, but both of these guys know what they're talking about. It's your starter clutch. At the timing you did have it set at, it was igniting soon enough that it was kicking back against the clutch. You retarded the spark a little, so it gets more of a spin before firing, for the time being preventing the dreaded "CLACK" noise. But eventually it will start doing it again.

The bigger problem here is that if you don't correct the actual issue, it will eventually spit the springs out the back of the housing plate, and into your engine. Also, it can/will snap the bolts that hold the clutch to the charging rotor clean in two. All that crap will be floating around in your oil...

And what's more, your bike won't kick over anymore once the clutch goes.
Considering the cost of a new assbly, I highly doubt the starter clutch was replaced even when the motor was rebuilt.

the motor was rebulit at 60k miles and now has 66.7k miles. what's the likelihood that the starter clutch is original? i know that the starter is new because someone wrote "NEW" on it w/ a marker and i suspect it was done when motor was rebuilt. po was a fanatic and had a collection of bikes but the gs1100e was his favorite. he lost his vision and gave the bike to his son who i purchased the bike from. the son could not locate the paperwork for the rebuild but he assured me that his dad spared no expense and had everything replaced while the motor was out. this is not your average 1100e. when i removed the side cover for the starter clutch everything was tight and clean and showed no sign of wear. if i was a betting man i'd say it was new. that said, i have no plans of removing the starter clutch unless the knocking reappears. thanks.