A handy guide to not rebuilding your slipping starter clutch.

The Virago is very different from the XJ . The starter clutch is internal and uses springs and rollers to lock when cranking . Over time 35 plus years the springs gradually loose their temper of the steel . The starter clutch will slip when hot it happened to me on two different engines , it gradually got worse . Very bad when you would stop for gas and it would slip and sounded like shaking a coffee can ful of hardware , it would finally hit . Worse would be if you killed engine while in traffic . As to your question of a worn idler gear or spring again not the same set up . I had put pictures of the inside of the engine in an earlier post . I used to have an 82 virago 750 know ALL about the starter woes , to bad the XJ is not the same set up but it is not.

 

The idler gear on the XJ series does not wear out.
There is no spring on the XJ series idler gear.

 

I've got an '82 Seca. It's developed the box of rocks issue after I changed the oil. It was starting to happen on and off before, but now it's real bad. Like, 99% slipping bad. I used JASO approved Redline 20w50 during the change. I've tried rolling it back and forth to see if it was sticky clutches. Nothing is working. Am I doomed? Taking the engine apart for this old junker just isn't in the cards for me.

 

I have done two starter clutches , it is actually easy once the engine is out of the frame a couple of hours and a few adult beverages and you can split the case halfs . A wooden palate works great to keep engine off concrete, a good starter clutch repair kit, an oil pan gasket, clutch cover gasket and left side cover gasket, red and blue locktight, tube of Yamabond 4 , a set of star sockets and a set of Allen wrenches sockets , a 30mm socket of clutch bolt . The gaskets can be purchased from xj4ever, the first one I did took me a little over a week taking my time , the second one took me three days as only working a few hours on it at a time. I helped via phone a fellow forum member do his xj900 Seca do his starter clutch , his starter clutch was cracked , he had never wrenched like this before but he did it and bike is running great .

 

Isn't that a synthetic oil? I had never had any slippage of the starter clutch until I tried Amsoil full synthetic motorcycle oil. It was not near as bad as what you describe, so maybe with a marginal starter clutch synthetic really makes it worse. What oil were you running before you tried the Redline?

 

Holy Hannah, that Redline is expensive too!!!

 

I'd even say the xj900 is running better than before!

 

yeah, it's a synthetic. However, it is JASO rated as per the product sheet. Other members have said they've ran synthetic just fine.

 

I'm in Canada. How much did you pay for these parts to do the service? Seems to me like the cost of repair isn't worth it for this old clunker. She's not in the best shape.

 

Yeah, tell me about it... It was the only oil in this weight explicitly listed as JASO rated they had at the store. I'm new to bikes, so I didn't want to risk running a lesser oil and damaging the bike.

 

150$ total this was gaskets a starter clutch repair kit out of the UK ,oil filter , red, blue locktite .

 

I paid around $50 for the actual starter clutch. My bike starts up like it's brand new now. Very pleased with the result.