Starter

[sldunker]

There have been some bikes that have had to have there starters replaced. The only warning of starter failure has been a hesitation before or during cranking. When the failure did occur it was a complete failure of the starter.

Last fall I had some starts were I would get a hesitation while starter was cranking. Yesterday I pulled the bike out of its winter nest and got it in my shop. I removed the starter and disassembled it. The commutator end had quite a bit of brush dust built up on the lowest side of the starter. I cleaned it all up and blew air over all the pieces. I took some brake cleaner and cleaned the bearing up as it had brush dust in there. I greased the bearing with some synthetic grease and reassembled it. I bench tested the starter and it appears to be working fine now.

Like an idiot I forgot to take pictures.

The bike has 23,000 miles on it. Guess I will have to make it part of my maintenance  every 20,000 miles.

[saddlebum]

Done the same thing on a number of occasions including touching up the armature with some emery cloth. Makes a big difference. However nothing beats switching to a 4 brush starter.