[plofting]

My '81 GL500 will need some attention to the starter clutch soon, it has started to grate occasionally when the engine hasn't fired straight away and sounds horrible. I'd like to ask the forum on their experience of the life of the parts concerned, eg. what mileage did it need attention at, and also if anyone can remember how much the parts came to.

My bikes covered 64,500 km (40,300 miles).

 

[Shep]

You may be hard pushed to find new parts.Good 2nd hand may be the only option.They can last well over 100,000 miles if good routine maintenance has been done and the engine not abused.



If you ever see a low mileage engine going cheap,buy it for spares especially if it's a none runner.



There are some places you can get new rollers and springs but the actual driven gears may be worn so you can maybe source them off Ebay.If you ever get a full unit you need one to match your engine e.g the CDI engines have a different Starter Flywheel.



You can use a CDI starter flywheel in a None CDI engine but not the other way round as the CDI starter flywheels have a brass button/trigger on them that the TAI(Transistor Advanced Ignition) engines don't have.I'm not use if there are any other differences as I've never had a TAI engine.



HTH

 

[plofting]

Thanks for that reply HTH. The guy I got the bike from had it from new in Canada and brought it over to the UK with him in the nineties. He always had it serviced, I knew him from work for a good many years, but the old girl is showing her age now. He was finding it really hard to get spares for it and didn't want to ship her back to Canada when he goes back soon.

I'll keep an eye out for parts, it might be possible that rollers from somewhere else could be pressed into service if the dimensions were the same. Could prove useful if anyone has one in pieces that could measure the rollers with a micrometer and publish the results.



Paul

 

[Shep]

I'm almost certain that the Spring/Cap and roller kit are the same as my UK 1980 CX500s,



https://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/CX500A-1980/part_16712/



however David Silvers are superb company and they know their stuff and these bikes and a quick phone call/email and they will tell you.They also sometimes stock the small and large Starter Clutch gears.

If really stuck I have a couple of gears in my garage but not sure of their condition.

 

[greghoro]

A supplier in the US, PartsnMore, has a Starter Clutch Repair Kit;



They do ship internationally.





Greg

 

[Shep]

A supplier in the US, PartsnMore, has a Starter Clutch Repair Kit;



They do ship internationally.





Greg

Nice.They also advertise a decent price for cam chains,if they have them in stock