Starter Button Replacement

[Cobia]

Hi,
Does anyone remember the source of those SS starter button replacements?
The contacts on my starter switch got corroded and when I took it apart to clean the contacts I discovered that I only have about 1/4 of the lip, that keeps in from falling out, left. I know thay can be had from Mike's XS, but since I'm replacing it, I'd like to do it for the last time.
I searched the site for starter button and only came up with the Mike's XS solution.
I'm trying to build a lip with super glue as a stopgap, but........
Thanks in advance for your insight on this.

[Cobia]

Hope he's still alive !!!

I just found a link to aluminum replacement buttons TC put up in 2006.
I hope this guy is still alive since I ordered two of them and payed him via paypal......

[motoman]

Wow! that's been some time back Cobia, so I don't remember right off. I do remember that some that used them, even though stainless had issues with rust from the spring causing loss of contact ability. I'm sure a little dielectic grease put on spring initially would resolve that. Sure someone will chime in as to there location.

[Rasputin]

I see them from time to time on ebay. Sometimes marked as a horn button. Will work on either side. If you have no luck there I have some old switches that should be ok.

[bikerphil]

Here it is Robert....

http://www.freewebs.com/kibokojoe/

I have an extra aluminum one with the spring if you need it right away.

[Cobia]

I appreciate the offer Rasputin.
And Phil, that's who I ordered from, yet TC's post is from 2006. I hope the guy is still in business. There's no way of contacting him. I'll wait a couple of days to see if I get any kind of communication from him. If not, I'll just cancel the order through paypal and go with the plastic ones from Mikes XS.
The thing is that I'd rather have the aluminum ones, which should last forever, instead of the plastic ones.

[bikerphil]

He should still have them, I got a couple about a year ago, he shipped them pretty fast too. Yep, the plastic ones only last about 30 years

[Cobia]

They'll outlast me for sure....
Yet the aluminum ones will look cool and they're actually cheaper than the plastic ones.
Do you recall where they were shipped from?

[bikerphil]

From Ohio.

[3Phase]

Cobia, the metal buttons work great but they conduct electricity.

I have some brass buttons and I can get a mild 12V shock if I touch them with bare skin when they're wet and the ignition is on and the brass makes blue-green bubbles where it goes into the aluminum switch housing. It makes it fun to ride in the rain or after washing the bike.

[Laptop_geek]

I bought some when I first bought the bike (a couple months ago) and he sent them pretty fast, should be seeing them soon.

[DGXSER]

Cobia, the metal buttons work great but they conduct electricity.

I have some brass buttons and I can get a mild 12V shock if I touch them with bare skin when they're wet and the ignition is on and the brass makes blue-green bubbles where it goes into the aluminum switch housing. It makes it fun to ride in the rain or after washing the bike.

I always womdered about that part of it. Nothing is in there to isolate the metal button from the rest of the conducting parts. I wonder if you could slip a piece of thin plastic behind it if that would work to isolate.

[Prothec]

I bought a couple of them a couple years ago for my 650 to replace my starter button (and the horn had to match, right?). I have never had a shock from them, but I imagine the spring is rusting. When I try to start it, if it takes more than one attempt, sometimes the second time won't make a good enough connection and I need to sort of twist the button around in the housing. I didn't put di-electric grease in there when I replaced the buttons.

It beats the time before I replaced my missing starter button. It used to be an open socket and I had to put a key in there to short it. I remember a time when I stalled at a light right before it changed when I couldn't switch to reserve quick enough, then scrambling for my keys in my pocket while the drivers behind me became more and more pissed off.

[Cobia]

Thanks for the info Phil ans Geek.

3Phase, I wondered about them shocking you but 12V wouldn't bother me at all. Regarding the blue green bubbles, that's due to corrosion of dissimilar metals in contact with each other.

Prothec, I had that symptom as well and it was corrosion at the metal end of the button and at the contact on the switch. A little sanding with an emory cloth took care of that. And yes, stalling at a light and having to fiddle with keys or other objects to stick in the hole to start the bike after a light changes is certainly not a situation I want to find myself in.

I'm currently trying to build up some of the lip around the button with superglue. Just a stopgap measure until the new ones come in.
Don't want to use the horn button as a replacement since around here I use it more than the starter.......

[3Phase]

Electrolysis

3Phase, I wondered about them shocking you but 12V wouldn't bother me at all. Regarding the blue green bubbles, that's due to corrosion of dissimilar metals in contact with each other.

Cobia, metal buttons are great -- get them!

The 12V is nothing you'd feel with your fingers but it's worth a grin when you're sweating and you reach up or over and accidentally touch one of the buttons with the inside of your arm or your armpit while you're working on the bike.

The main problem is that the button has be insulated from the hot wire and the switch housing and you can't do that with a metal button, especially when the housing gets water in it.

I tried using plastic soda straws and heat-shrink tubing and they both made the buttons a little tight in the housing but they worked for a while, then the stuff would start to wear and split. They also made the nice metal buttons look bad so I just took it off and went to plan B.

Plan B was to find a small plastic or rubber grommet and I found several with the right inside diameter for the buttons but they didn't fit the housings.

The plastic press-fit grommets had outside diameters that were too large to work without drilling out the housing. A couple of the rubber grommets were close enough to work but they were made for sheet metal and they wouldn't fit the thicker metal in the housing without filing it to fit the groove in the grommet.

There isn't much 'meat' in the housings and if I messed up the holes I'd need to get new housings so for now I just leave the perfectly good switch gear alone and I try not to let them stay wet or touch the buttons when I work.

Note: A 1980 and later XS1100 has a Yellow/Red hot wire in the left-hand switch housing for the 4-way flashers that is fused only by the Main 30A fuse and it does not ever shut off unless the ignition switch is in the Lock position. When the housing gets water in it the metal button will bubble where the button touches the housing. I didn't notice it and left my '80G parked outside overnight after a long ride in the rain and the next morning there was a thin blue-green beard dripping from around the button caused by electrolysis, not galvanism.

A stainless steel or aluminum button won't give you the pretty blue-green color like a brass button but the electrolysis does separate the chromium in stainless steel. Chromium is not something you want to get on your hands or your gloves.