[mikula]

imported post

My '81 wing had been sitting in the garage since March and this weekend I tried to start her up. She was definitely having hard time, coughed up a few and smoke came out of the exhaust couple of times. So I kept cranking her (stupid, stupid) until starter motor gave up -- I tried too hard. Starter motor at this point was very hot to the touch.

I recharged the battery over night and this morning starter motor won't crank the engine. Actually, it won't spin at all. Basically, I hear starter solenoid click when i press start button and then there's loud grinding noise coming out of the starter motor and i can feel starter casing shaking a bit. I removed the starter motor off the bike, and connected it on bench to a 12v battery and it spins just fine. I also connected it through the solenid (without putting it back into the engine) and it spins ok which means my start switch/solenoid/battery connection is ok. Then i put it back into the engine and same story: grinding noise coming out of the starter motor.

So I am puzzled... is it still possible that starter motor is not ok although it spins just fine when not installed in the engine? Brushes maybe? Or am I looking into something more serious, e.g. starter clutch is broken?

 

[mikula]

imported post

Well -- finally got to open up the starter today, as everyone suggested. There was 2-3oz of black tar/dust from the brushes in the cap. Brushes still had 8-9mm so I didnt see the need to replace them. Used compressed air to clean everything over and over. Removed brush plate and cleaned everything with brake cleaner. I also added (as two folks suggested) an extra grounding wire for the plate as I saw burn marks on the plate -- I drilled trough the starter casing and put an extra screw for this ground wire. Put everything back together, installed the starter -- and voila!! It worked. Thanks guys a lot for your help.