My ‘77D had become a very reluctant starting bike, it runs great , but every cold start went like this,
RUH RUH RUH RUH.....stop......RUH RUH RUH...stop...RUH RUH VROOM. I made this video three weeks ago. Pay no attention to the kicking during the first part of the video, that was an experiment to see if I primed the motor with a couple of kicks, if it would start any faster....it didn’t.
It got to be such a pain, I didn’t even want to ride it lately. That’ll never do, so today that led to this.
Note to self: If I ever take this thing off again, remember to drain the oil FIRST !
After I finished cleaning up oil off the floor, I was trying to decide on a course of action.
My standard method is to start throwing money at the problem until success is achieved. I was already thinking about new cables and seals, and splitting this starter open and dressing the armature and checking the brushes, maybe a new starter solenoid, but for once in my life, I decided to try and just systematically work through the system looking for problems.
And here is what I believe the biggest culprit was,
I had tried to inspect this terminal underneath the bike with the starter mounted, but could not. The rubber boot was tight up next to a frame tube and I couldn’t wiggle it back off. So the starter was removed, it was better anyways, now everything is up on the work bench and easy to work on.
This photo, everything is wet with penetrating oil. The nuts were completely rusted on and so corroded I had to use needle nose vise grips to remove them.
Cleaned up and new hardware. Note: there are some errors in this photo regarding one too many flat washers and that brown insulator is on there backward, but I didn’t take a photo with the corrections made.
and ready to go back in.
A 12mm offset wrench gets right on that pesky upper right bolt. The real bear is getting that bolt started in the threads, it’s a real fingertip operation.
Next up I moved on to the cables on the battery. When I went to remove them, they did not feel very tight and the dielectric grease that I had applied to the terminals had migrated between the cables and the battery posts, in my opinion That was suspect number two! Not making good contact with the battery. Cables off and everything cleaned and shined up.
I also removed the ground cable and shined up all contact points with sandpaper, including where it mounts to the frame.
At that point, I refilled the crankcase with oil and gave the starter a try. It doesn’t sound noticeably faster, but it started with much more authority. I let it run for about 30 seconds and turned the key off and hit it again.
https://youtu.be/da2eXUFXoOw
So all in all, I’m happy with the outcome. This project took up a couple of afternoons and that’s just taking my time. Now I’m thinking.....I need to take that old girl for a ride!
Later, Bob
RUH RUH RUH RUH.....stop......RUH RUH RUH...stop...RUH RUH VROOM. I made this video three weeks ago. Pay no attention to the kicking during the first part of the video, that was an experiment to see if I primed the motor with a couple of kicks, if it would start any faster....it didn’t.
It got to be such a pain, I didn’t even want to ride it lately. That’ll never do, so today that led to this.
Note to self: If I ever take this thing off again, remember to drain the oil FIRST !
After I finished cleaning up oil off the floor, I was trying to decide on a course of action.My standard method is to start throwing money at the problem until success is achieved. I was already thinking about new cables and seals, and splitting this starter open and dressing the armature and checking the brushes, maybe a new starter solenoid, but for once in my life, I decided to try and just systematically work through the system looking for problems.
And here is what I believe the biggest culprit was,
I had tried to inspect this terminal underneath the bike with the starter mounted, but could not. The rubber boot was tight up next to a frame tube and I couldn’t wiggle it back off. So the starter was removed, it was better anyways, now everything is up on the work bench and easy to work on.
This photo, everything is wet with penetrating oil. The nuts were completely rusted on and so corroded I had to use needle nose vise grips to remove them.
Cleaned up and new hardware. Note: there are some errors in this photo regarding one too many flat washers and that brown insulator is on there backward, but I didn’t take a photo with the corrections made.
and ready to go back in.
A 12mm offset wrench gets right on that pesky upper right bolt. The real bear is getting that bolt started in the threads, it’s a real fingertip operation.
Next up I moved on to the cables on the battery. When I went to remove them, they did not feel very tight and the dielectric grease that I had applied to the terminals had migrated between the cables and the battery posts, in my opinion That was suspect number two! Not making good contact with the battery. Cables off and everything cleaned and shined up.
I also removed the ground cable and shined up all contact points with sandpaper, including where it mounts to the frame.
At that point, I refilled the crankcase with oil and gave the starter a try. It doesn’t sound noticeably faster, but it started with much more authority. I let it run for about 30 seconds and turned the key off and hit it again.
So all in all, I’m happy with the outcome. This project took up a couple of afternoons and that’s just taking my time. Now I’m thinking.....I need to take that old girl for a ride!
Later, Bob
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