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What is this starter sound?

3445 Views 46 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  JeffOYB, 
JeffOYB
I have a 1979 custom 12k miles runs great. Its cold now. I've been getting weird sound from my starter. The sound comes and goes. It usually comes on after like a minute of trying to start. A hard start. I got the bike this fall. Never made the sound. Once it got below freezing and I didn't ride it for weeks at a time, it would make the sound during the longer times it took to start. Once it started, the sound would go away on warm restarts. But when cold some machinery definitely changes, and there's a very different bad sort of sound after a minute or so.

[REVISING TO ADD INFO ON THE HARD START: Whew, it took like 5 minutes of cranking to start this last time. I vary all the options. Is there a standard way to hard start in the cold? I try choke out, choke in, throttled a bit, twisted a couple times, no throttle. Sometimes it starts turning over with starter still engaged then it quits when I release the button. In the warm weather it often only takes like a 1/2 second to start -- touch the button, bang. So nice.]

Can you tell me what's happening with this sound? Here's a link to the Youtube....

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bahn88
richnct said:
The helping hand here is sounding more like preaching fire and brimstone. If I didn’t know better I’d think he is riding one of YOUR own personal bikes? Well intentioned but getting a bit heavy handed IMO.
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DouginEasternWashington said:
Because these bikes are so reliable you will probably achieve your few year goal. It’s unfortunate your goal isn’t to learn about your bike and how to maintain it. You might come out ahead trading your bike in while it’s still running for a newer one with fuel injection and an onboard computer and no personality. Happy
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DouginEasternWashington said:
Because these bikes are so reliable you will probably achieve your few year goal. It’s unfortunate your goal isn’t to learn about your bike and how to maintain it. You might come out ahead trading your bike in while it’s still running for a newer one with fuel injection and an onboard computer and no personality. Happy riding.
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Hey that comment will offend RE650 owners and even me with 200000 on a K100rs😄...though yeah.. 3 valve shims, cam chain at 100000km.. regular oil changes and that was mainly it....
Not even final gear splines to grease....
I see your point.....lol
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JeffOYB
Hi... I looked at the valve tappet pages. I saw two terms that I don't know. "In." and "Ex." ?""

For adjusting the chain it says rotate the shaft then loosen a nut. Sounds easy. there better not be any monkey biz involved w "rotate crankshaft" -- coz i dont know what or where it is.

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reclinedrelic
JeffOYB said:
Hi... I looked at the valve tappet pages. I saw two terms that I don't know. "In." and "Ex." ?
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"In" is short for intake and "Ex" is short for exhaust. Fuel and air enter the engine from the carbureator through the intake valves and the exhaust gases exit through the exhaust valves.
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reclinedrelic
When setting the valves I check with the required feeler gauge, which should slide in with just a bit of resistance and double check by trying the next largest feeler gauge. It should not fit.
When adjusting the valves you will need a wrench to hold the nut and a tool to turn the adjuster. This thread describes one way of making the tool.
www.cx500forum.com

Simple Canadian tool for adjusting CX/GL500 valves

I haven't adjusted the valves on a CX/GL500 in about 14 years and I have no idea what I used then. I remembered reading about someone screwing a Robertson head wood screw into a piece of wood and using that but I decided to make up something more tool like. I started by finding a pan head bolt...
www.cx500forum.com www.cx500forum.com
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Randall-in-Mpls
Intake is toward the back of the bike, exhaust toward the front.
We seem to be overlooking the important issue of stroke when adjusting the valves and cam chain. The cylinder needs to be at Top Dead Center (TDC) on the compression stroke (when all the valves are closed.)
I'm sure the process is described at length. If nowhere else, I've typed out at least one post in the past with the entire procedure.
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Sidecar Bob
There must be someone near him who can show him some of the basics.

In the meantime, go through the FSM from cover to cover before you start looking up specific procedures. You don't have to read everything in detail but you will learn a lot about things in general.
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JeffOYB
Randall-in-Mpls said:
I've never been good with derailleurs. Valve adjustments are easy.
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i can do low hanging fruit. easy maint with simple skills. i can use a feeler gauge.
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