never had this happen before..

[brcree]

81 Sp., total rebuild frame up. Went to take a ride the other day and the starter made a funny noise and the bike didn't start. No eng. turn over either. I managed to put it into 3rd gear, rocked it a few times and it started fine. It has always started before. Are the starters lame at times or what?

[jetmechmarty]

What kind of funny noise?

[IanDMacDonald]

The "non-greased goose" noise?

[brcree]

noise

haaaa...yeah goose noise!....well...it wasn't the usual clicking sound.....or the dead batt. sound..just metalic sounding....not a grinding either?.....I'm thinking stuck gears...may need a good greeezen!

[jwhughes3]

Starter clutches not catching. They are 3 metal nibs that grab a shaft in one direction only.

Changing them requires splitting the cases as its buried in the exact middle of the engine.

We had to do that to the Navy bike when I bought it. You aren't using synthetic oil are you? Or oil with friction modifiers? (The bottom half of the API circle should be blank) Those can lead to clutch slipping as well as starter clutch.

Very exciting.

John

[brcree]

strater..

good info ..thanks....darn...just split the cases to fix #2 gear slipping. Not ready to do that again! No...not using synth oil.

[jwhughes3]

I do not think you have to split cases to fix second gear. You can drop the gears out of the pan to repair. But at least you got a full inspection.

John

[trbig]

With the 20/50 oil, sometimes mine does that in colder weather, but in warm.. can't remember it ever doing it. There's an easy fix to get rid of the dying goose sound, but no quick fix for starter clutches. That being said.. You've probably got years of riding before you have to really start worrying about that. It may get slowly worse over the years, or may never get worse, or may have just been a not-so-fully-charged battery that day for some reason.

[DiverRay]

I would try and pull the starter to re-grease and clean it. It's getting late, so I'm NOT going to look for the thread, but there is one about this. Should take about two hours tops, and you have a new starter, minus the new brushes. Nice part, no money needed for parts.

[Prisoner6]

I would try and pull the starter to re-grease and clean it. It's getting late, so I'm NOT going to look for the thread, but there is one about this ...

Here is James' write-up on the starter motor strip, clean, and re-grease:

Starter motor strip

[trbig]

Or.. if you don't want to mess with all of that, just stop the noise for now, put a tiny dab of grease here.

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showpost.p...2&postcount=13