[Zeph]

Hey, anyone have any ideas on why the starter may want to turn over hard/slow? This is with a fresh battery and a jump from my Jeep. The motor runs fine when started. Well other than the carbs need tweeked. Thanks Zeph

 

[Blue Fox]

First, you need good, solid, clean connections on the battery and each area that the battery cables end up. Clean all of those, battery, battery ground at the frame, connection at the solenoid, and from the solenoid to the starter.



Then you may need to service the starting motor. Pull the motor off and remove the two long bolts that hold the case ends on. I usually use a Sharpie to scribe some lines in the case and ends to show how to line things up when re-assembling. Then take the cir-clip off the gear end and slide the gear off. Note which way the gear came off, it will fit ether way, but only one is correct.



Then blow all the carbon dust out, check the brushes for length, and clean the commutator with a Scotchbrite pad. If the commutator bars are worn, you may have to undercut them. But this isn't usually necessary. Just get all the grit out of the grooves in the commutator.



There have been several cases of the internal grounding of the brushes failing or partially failing. The ground for them is a couple of tabs that are on the brush ring. These make contact with the case by the pressure of the assembly bolts squeezing the motor ends together. Not the best system. So if you want to remedy this, go to the general discussion forum and click on Quick References. There are several posts on how to add a positive ground to the motor. It isn't hard to do, I have done 3-4, and vastly improves the working of the starting motor.

 

[Zeph]

Got it, pulled the starter and blew it out. El-mucho bettero. I just took it on a quick jant around the block. First time this has has moved under it's own power for 10 years or so. Much tweeking to do.....................

 

[timothy_d]

This is an older post, but I wanted to throw my two cents in as well.



I've rebuild a couple of starters, including my CX500T starter just last month.

Even after a rebuild (and a new battery), the starter was still running slow, and once when I was getting ready to leave work, it just went "click, click, click."



It made me realize that there is another part we tend to overlook.

Starter solenoids can give us the same issue as a dirty starter and a low battery.



I don't claim to know diddly squat about what is inside a solenoid, but I imagine that there are wires of some sort that can get corroded with time. 28 year old bike, original solenoid. Do the math.



Sure as death and taxes, as soon as I replaced the solenoid, I had no more starting issues.

The universal solenoid that I bought required very little modification (trimmed a locking tab), and uses a new style fuse instead of the old exposed blade type fuse.

 

[Shep]

Starter solenoids are old technology electro-mechanical relays.Modern Automotive vehicles now use Electronic high current relays.You could,if you so wished,modernize the part using a car relay but the Solenoids are still available.



The basic principle is explained here,



http://www.ramva.org/dragenwagen/starter.html



You don't have to pay a premium price for them if you shop round but there are variations in the types used between the CX500 models and also the GL500 models so you have to match the correct one to the model of bike.





HTH

 

[marshallf3]

I wonder if they're like an old GM starter solenoid where you can flip the contact plunger washer to expose a new contact surface?

 

[Blue Fox]

The contacts in a solenoid can indeed be flipped. The hardest part is getting the two small coil wires down thru the top cap. Then you can remove the big wire contacts and reverse them, and reverse the plunger contacts also.