Long story short. Finally got my bike to behave and start when I wanted it to this spring. Then electrical tragedy struck and I have a brand new starting problem.

Bike will not crank the engine over. Proceeding to the incident everything worked fine. But when leaving an appointment recently it would weakly crank over and eventually gave up. Had to push start it on level ground with an audience. Awkward.

Checked battery. Charged overnight. Tried jump starting and still no good. Volt meter readings at battery, just shy of 13 after charge. Approx 10.5 while trying to crank her over.

Starting Solenoid clicks when I push the start button. I encountered a problem with this a few years ago and replaced it so its new.

Removed Starter and tried running it directly with jumper cables. It moved very slowly and sounded lame before it stopped turning over at all. Pulled it apart and the contacts were full oil and very dirty. Also looked short.

So obviously I can link this to the starter right?

Rebuild it? or source complete starter unit?

i would assume the starter. A rebuild should be do-able. simply cleaning it might work also.

+1^^ Rebuild time. Oh Chacal....

brake/electrical cleaner on the commutator, new brushes, new grease, should work wonders. i had the same issue and now she starts great. make sure you line everything up right, if you don't the starer could spin backwards. sharpie on the case helps.

Is it normal for oil to get into the section of the starter that contains the brushes? There was a lot of oil and gunk in there. I cleaned it all out recently, like 2 years ago.

Depends on your definition of "normal." I assume based on your username we're talking about a 550. What year and more importantly, how many miles are on it?

(Add your bike info to your sig and save us asking next time.)

Its an 82 Maxim 550

Somewhere around 32k

Is there a seal that prevents oil from finding its way into the starter? I was looking at the rebuild parts available from Chacal and didn't notice any seals for that.

cleaned the inside of the starter and turned the armature on the lathe. WOW, bike starts instantly now. It used to take the engine a few rotations before it would start but now instant on.

ordered a complete starter rebuild kit off ebay and installed it today.

Answer to my own question.

Yes there is a seal. A bearing followed by an oil seal located just inside the starter case near the starter output gear prevent oil from entering the starter.