Starting woes ...

The bike is a Maxim XJ550.

I have:
checked the starter circuit, replaced the starter solenoid with a known working unit. Checked valve clearances and corrected 7 out of 8 shims, replaced the valve cover gasket, and made the carbs clean enough that a microbe would have trouble finding anything to live on. I replaced the starter motor with a freshly restored unit, having cleaned and relubed it top to bottom.

The starter was bench tested, worked great, installed in bike. I was doing the carb sync when the adhesive I was told was gas safe turned out not to be and clogged the carbs ... Okay, do the carbs again., replacing the float valves and needles. Done. Mount the carbs. Start the bike. Bike runs fine but needs final tune up. Oooops, the ATF fluid from my monometer is getting sucked into the manifold. Quick, turn it off. Find that manometer is leaking at the intersection, replace original aquarium intersections with two brass compression Ts.

Try to start, starter motor goes, but no joy. Reach for the starting fluid, spray some in, push the start button ... rapid clicking from the solenoid. WTF!!!

Started Gamaru's How to on testing the starter circuit, beginning at the top. When bridging the solenoid, just get rapid clicking. I get something like .3 Ohms testing the resistance from negative term to crank case. This is supposed to mean repair/replace the starter. So just for the halibut, I pulled the starter motor again, bench test - whirrrrrrrr - okay, that's good. Reinstall. Bridge solenoid to see if it cranks. starts cranking immediately. Okay, let's set it uip to run properly - ignition on, kill switch to on, clutch in, press the button ... rapid clicking again? I just pulled the starter and it bench tested fine, so, how could there be a problem with the starter? I checked the reistence from negative term to crank case, resistance is very low, down in the decimals (lowest setting for ohms chosen: 0-200 ohms.

If someone can provide some insight, I am desperate.

Thanks.

 

Sounds to me like the battery is drained. Try charging it fully then see what you get...

 

Battery is charged full up. Putting out 13.5 volts. In case it was the battery though, I jumped to the battery in my infinity with the same result.

The solenoid is getting power, but somehow, the starter motor isn't getting proper signal.

Mike

 

Further note:

I tested the connection from the negative terminal to the engine block and I get a resistance of something like .3 ohms with the meter set to 0-200 ohm (lowest setting).

I did the same test on the cable going from the starter solenoid to the starter and resistance is nominal, something less than .0x

So there is no resistance for either connection which would suggest that current can flow freely. Still the starter just makes rapid clicks and bridging the solenoid provides some nice sparks but no action.

 

How easily should the starter spin with nothing connected? Should I be able to spin it by the exposed gear on the end with my fingers? Should it spin smoothly? Should I need a wrench?

I pulled the starter apart again, and found that somehow, there was a whole lot of carbon already in the thing, particularly where the brushes make contact. That ring of copper plates were well coated and I found a lot of crud between each of the plates. I !thought! I had cleaned all those spaces out before, but I hadn't polished the copper plates. I had used the better part of a 19 oz can of brake cleaner cleaning the thing so I was amazed at how much carbon already. I couldn't spin the motor with my fingers, but using a wrench it turned readily. Also, instead of a smooth spin, it was more of a bumpy ride. When I installed it, I had to wiggle the starter around to get it to go in. Is this a problem? An auto mechanic suggested that maybe it wasn't lined up properly and I should slowly rotate the gear until I get an easy insertion. Otherwise, the "load" might be too great?

 

Will be a bit hard to spin by hand. The bumpy spin is normal due to the magnets and coils. not sure why you would have that much build up after a short time. I have never had an issue just inserting the starter and let it go.

Have you made sure you can turn the motor over by hand?

 

yes, I can turn the motor over by hand. Had to in order to do the valve shim work. i will double check it still does, but can't see what would have changed that.

 

Thanks guys.

I checked / cleaned all the connections, all seemed fine. I pulled the starter motor again, stripped it down, rebuilt it.

I was wondering if maybe there was a short somewhere with the pos terminal to the starter, so I applied a small amount of RTV below the insulator washer, around the hole the terminal goes through, and built up the rubber ring on the inside that is supposed to prevent contact from underneath.

Also, the gaskets around the starter were pretty much shot, so instead of putting them back on or buying a new set for $22!!!, I used RTV instead - that's what its for, right? To make gaskets ...

I put the whole she-bang back together and *poof*, and cranks like she should. I did polish up the copper of the commutator as well so all the copper gleamed.

I don't know which thing did it, but whatever it was, I got it.

One strange thing I ran into was that I had filled up the battery with distilled water about two weeks ago, but today, I found the water level below the point where I could not even see it. So I filled it back up before trying to start again.

What could make it lose that much water? Would there be a leak?

I so want an AGM battery ...

 

If you're losing that much water from the battery, you should check your charging system. It sounds like it's overcharging and boiling the water out.

 

Ah! Then it would be the battery charger it was on. It is only 1.5 amps so I thought it would be able to be on for longer periods. I wanted it to be charged at each phase when I was trying to work on it ...

Thanks