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Time to test/repair/replace the starter?

Bike is turning over again

Bike is turning over again

After making a quick trip to Advance Auto last night and Ace Hardware this morning to pick these up:

rubberpieces.jpg


the starter is finally back together properly and on the bike. First, I cut down the rubber washer from Ace's plumbing section to match up to the approximate size of the slot in the cap (short on one side but not too bad). Then, I trimmed the end off the vacuum plug from Advance (thanks Steve for that advice) and slid it right down onto the screw end.

Bolttogether.jpg


Put everything else back on:

starterbacktogether.jpg


Installed it into the bike and after a short scare of nothing turning, the new starter brushes did their job and I can now hear the engine turning over. Now I just need to get the carbs back in their boots and go from there. I'll post that stuff back in the other thread I had. But at least that much is working now.:clap:


EDITED to Add: And the bike runs again. Thank you to all for your help.
 
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Hey guys, sorry to dredge up this old thread but it is a good one and I figured its better than starting a new one about the same thing.

My bike would not start (82 gs1100gl), but I got a click from the solenoid. No voltage drain on battery when trying the start, and no noise when the solenoid was shorted across the poles, so I figure its got to be the starter. Sure enough I take it out and put it on the sidewalk, put my foot on it securely, hook it up to my motorcycle battery (fully charged gel) and brace myself....and I get a pretty weak spin. From what I understand, it should want to jump off the ground what with the high torque, but that didn't happen at all. So I took it apart and look at the inside.

First impressions are a lot of black soot and debris in there. I just turned it upside down and shook it a bit. Then I looked at the brush plate, and pushed on the brushes ... all but one (its a mitsuba 4 brush) of them literally fragmented and disintegrated in my hand. The one that was intact was split in half transversely, making a little metal brush sandwich. So I am safe in assuming that this is the reason I was having so much trouble starting, right?

I did order new brushes, o rings, and brush plate from starter stocker.com What is the best way to connect the wire from the brushes to the existing wires? They seem thick...could I just solder them?

On to the good part. What is the best way to get all the soot out and clean everything? I saw earlier emery cloth, electrical contact cleaner were recommended. I think I will use a plastic or brass wire brush to clean up the body and magnet area, and then use contact cleaner + brass brush + emory cloth (360-400 grit?) for the commutator and other electrical contact areas. On reassembly, is there is anything in particular I should watch out for? Important here are things that I should NOT do, as this is the first time I have looked at the inside of any starter motor, and I don't want to make some crucial mistake and ruin the motor. Or have it spin backwards and kill the engine or something.

I have read not to use grease, and also in some places to use grease. Should I use grease or not; and if so, what kind and where should I put it?

Thanks guys. I am at work so if you ask me any questions I will be able to check here periodically.
 
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I don't know if it's the same on an 1100, but I recently replaced my starter, and all I removed was the starter cover and gasket. If you're patient and familiar with the top of the engine block of your bike, it's not hard to remove the starter without removing anything else.

cowboyup3371 said:
Looking at how to remove the starter, I found one of two options - remove the cam chain tensioner (which Clymer recommends) or just buy a universal joint adapter for the ratchet. I'll try the second one first and use a rubber mallet and piece of wood to push the starter out of it's slot (according to what I found on here).

However, I'm unsure on one portion of testing the starter itself. In the video I found of Steve testing one, it shows he's using a battery with jumper cables. Can I also use my battery charger/maintainer to do the same thing or is that going to knock me for a loop?

Also, do I have to hold the starter in a vice/by hand or can I just set it on the ground? I'd rather not have it walk out of my hands if I'm not holding it properly but don't have a vise set up yet here.
Click to expand...
 
lordcannon88 said:
If you're patient and familiar with the top of the engine block of your bike, it's not hard to remove the starter without removing anything else.
Click to expand...
Lordcannon, if you look closely at the timestamps for the various postings, you will see that this thread started LAST YEAR in June, and cowboyup posted a resolution LAST YEAR in July.

Ekabil dragged it up this morning, rather than start a new post.
icon_shrug.gif


.
 
something else to consider:

where the brush holder plate rests inside the housing, it must be CLEAN, as it makes a ground contact for one of the brushes.. if it is dirty and corroded.. it will not work.
 
Yeah I dunno i thought its better to consolidate threads on the same topic. who knows man, these internets are crazy. ill start a new thread instead, tomorrow

and if it matters to anyone, on an 82gs1100GL, you do *not* need to remove the carbs, or the cam chain tensioner, or anything but the starter cover, in order to remove the starter motor.
 
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Did you ever verify that your solonoid was actually working? If you jump from the battery IN directly to the starter and the starter worked but nothing happened when you jumped across the poles your solonoid could be internally fried. Even though it "clicked" that doesn't mean that the solonoid was making any contact internally.
 
Actually, if it clicks then it is working.

I would ensure you marked the caps from each end so you know which end goes where. I will admit though even with trying to rebuild it I couldn't get things to work properly and just bought another that did work. Good luck and I'm looking forward to hearing how you manage it.
 
Thanks guys. I would like to go ahead and redirect any new posters to my very nice new thread. And shorting the solenoid's poles with a piece of (conductive) metal would have made the starter turn if the solenoid was broken, which it did not.
 
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