FYI.... I ASKED COWPUC ABOUT MY STARTER WOE'S AND HE BEING ONE OF THE KINDEST AND MOST INFORMATIVE MEMBERS ON VENTURE.ORG.....TOLD ME WHAT TO DO. I BELIEVE THIS INFO IS TO BE SHARED WITH EVERYONE ELSE ON THE WEBSITE.....THANK YOU COWPUC !...YOU ARE THE BEST.....COWBOY BILL
HOWDY COWBOY!! Always a pleasure hearing from you my brother! On the starter question... Years ago Yamaha produced a bike called the 750 Virago,, do you remember them? The 750 Virago design with its "bendix" was a huge failure for Mom Yam because of the noise you are hearing and my shops backroom made good money fixing the noise by grinding relief on the mating gears of the bendix to quiet them down (something Mom Yam approved of for warranty repair but never did a recall on,, made me mad - I should have been rewarded HUGELY for that lol). After regrinding those mating gears all that was left was for the owner to ALWAYS remember to use a GOOD battery and to keep the starter cleaned internally so the starter would not let the engine backfire on start up, ruining the gears. Mom Yam DID make a new design for our Ventures, thankfully, called a Starter Clutch as shown here:
https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/1983/xvz12tk/starter-clutch
As you can see, our Ventures do not have a Bendix. Instead there are idler gears that transfer the power from the starter to the starter clutch and that "clutch" has 3 spring held engagement devices that engage when you spin the starter up. It sounds to me like your starter clutch has failed, cracked where the pins set in it that hold the engagement arms. Bill,, this is actually very common because most owners do not know that they REALLY need to keep the interior of the starter clean from carbon dust created by the brushes and to always keep a good battery employed - basically the same maintenance I ALWAYS explained to the 750 Virago owners I had done my repair to to quiet their bikes. The hardest part of fixing/replacing the starter clutch is removal of the flywheel to get at the starter clutch. If the flywheel has never been removed it can be a bugger.. You will need a GOOD 2 or 3 jaw puller and, I suggest, a GOOD impact rotary. Put a bike strap over the flywheel to catch it when it finally lets go so it dont get ya. Also take a REALLY close look at your bikes stator assembly while your in there, look for burned coils. Make sure your bike has had the update to the stator installed consisting of a splash plate to toss oil on the stator and a wire that goes into the flywheel nut oil orifice. You could also look into locating a 4 brush starter (as used in the MK2's) as many Venture owners have found them to not be so dependent on keeping the starters clean internally, at least that is what I have read/heard. Personally I have never had need to replace my starters with the 4 brush or ever had a starter clutch fail in any of my 6 MK1's covering over 1 million miles. I am pretty sure that has to do with the fact that I always kept my starters clean and maintained a good battery. Hope this helps my friend! If you have ANY other questions do not be hesitant to ask! Your brother of the wrench n saddle. Puc
P.S.. - it might not be a bad idea to repost your exact question to me in the Watering Hole and I will copy/paste my response to you there. It may produce other ideas (always a good thing) and help others in the future. what say you?
