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Jim's 1980 SG Miss September

In fact, my wife frowns on me mounting wenches in general.

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Starter
Seems like forever since I had a chance to come out and work on the bike. What to do....
There's only 2 seals left in my seal kit... the kick starter and the electric starter. I guess it's the starters turn. Grabbed it off the shelf, set it on the bench and pulled the boot back from the pwr. cable. "Rutrow..... "

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At least that explains why the starter would barely turn over.... So, tried to remove the case tie screws to split it open. Another "rutrow..." After busting 2 (count 'em) impact bits, I grabbed the drill...

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And took a cutoff wheel to the rusted hardware on the power stud....

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The notch gave just enough purchase for a punch to spin 'em off.

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The green arrow points to what's left of the outer nut. At this point I'm not sure if this is what you'd call progress or not..... Anyway.... no surprises on the inside. In fact, everything looked pretty good. Cleaned everything up. Brushes were almost unused (just a hair shorter than book new). Went ahead and cleaned up the ends. Pole shoes showed no discoloration... and ohm'd good. Painted the case and set it outside to dry (90+deg. today). Commutator mic'd out like new and rotor ohm'd good. Went ahead and polished with #800 paper. Mica showed good undercutting. Bronze bushings were nice and tight so I went ahead and replaced the seal in the end cap.

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Fast forward two hrs. and every place I checked showed the case tie screws as "no longer available." Crap....
Finally found a solution in my aircraft hardware stash. You can see 'em in the pic above. Genuine Pratt & Whitney PT-6A stainless steel accessory drive case studs. 10-32 threads on both ends and long enough to fit the starter. Now, here's the cool... and rather odd part.... the 10-32 threads screwed into the end cap perfectly....

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The arrows point to the drilled off heads of the original screws. Those are now fillers for the countersunk holes in the cap. Here's another shot...

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New hardware for the power stud.....

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And all put back together....

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And as they say... the proof's in the puddin'....


Now I gotta order some new connector boots and terminals to make a new power cable... and I can install it.
 
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So.... if a Tree Falls in the Forest......
Ages ago I had a 69 Mustang with a 429 stuffed under the hood. Can't remember now if it was factory or someone else stuck it in there. I do remember changing the starter. It wouldn't come out 'cause the header was in the way... and the header wouldn't come out 'cause the starter was in the way. It was an all day job if memory serves.
The SG starter isn't even in the same class. Still.... that bugger's a tight fit.
So anyway, back to my question.... if you go all OCD on the starter, and nobody can see it... did you really go all OCD on it?

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Haha! On my best day my bike will never be as clean as that! You know , you’ll just have to do like the guys at the car shows and carry a mirror with you, so when you park your bike you can slip it under the motor so folks can enjoy the beautiful UNDERside of your motor! Man that’s clean! And not a nick on it from the install!
 
Clutch
I suppose I could have bought a tool to hold the clutch basket while I torqued it... but y'all must know by now that's not my style. ;)

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Also installed the starter gearbox and cover. Of course I had to "clean" it up a little first....

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Somebody please come take this buffer away from me.....:(
Hopefully I'll get the right cover finished up and installed tonight... and then on to the electrical. I have an Epson 3800 large format printer, so I printed a wiring diagram that even these tired ol' eyes can see....

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