Clay, i have a WTF starter question on EC 300 2011
 

it was working fine for all day sunday. put it up and today started it to test the speedo and the starter would not disengage. if I pop the motor off the bendex is all bound up, the only thing to do is loosen all side cover bolts and then it will spin free. any snug on them at all and the damn thing binds right up on using the e-start. is there some ninja trick to getting the side bolts tight enough so that they don't fall out but wont bind the bendex either?

Frustrated as hell right now.

The side cover gasket sets the clearance between the starter drive gear and the flywheel.
If the gasket is collapsed from repeated reuse, the clearance will be too tight causing the binding.
Also, as mentioned before, the top starter retaining bolts at the cylinder need to have the right clearance. Otherwise it will pull the starter out of alignment.

I think that it is the side gasket. are they in stock and can I get a handful of them quickly? G, where was this before, maybe before I started watching here?
I have not had the side off until today.

If its that critical they should have redesigned the cover with an o-ring, so its snugged down against the case (metal on metal), like a cyl head on the cyl.

Could be dirt in the bendix. It was very dusty we rode last weekend.

Putting in an extra gskt. on mine did the trick. Also I think alot of the engagement problems that people are having could be fixed by this. I think spacing the cover out a little gives the bendix to ring gear a little more room to make a smooth engagement. I think what was happening on mine was the bendix was coming down and hitting the ring gear and then popping right back up instead of engaging. I'm not saying this is whats wrong with yours for sure but it sure helped mine.

On a 2011?
 

Seems the gasket would be fine- unless original thickness of the gasket was not sufficient- if two solves the problem, that may be the case.
The e-start kind of worries me. I don't know why, but my impression- admittedly just from pics and some discussion- is that it was an afterthought and not planned for... that kind of concerns me.

While waiting for the official gaskets to arrive and not wanting to miss a possible ride friday, I made a thicker gasket out of some rubberized stuff from autozone. it is about twice and a smidge more than what the stock measured. This appears to have fixed the problem.

* ) the bendex was quite clean, no dirt in the system.
* ) the starter didn't appear to be binding.
* ) bendex freed itself after loosening the side.

Along with the thicker gasket seeming to have fixed the issue, I think that it was Girard's first guess.

Thanks Guys!

Sorry I didn't get back to you until now. Spent all day yesterday driving to FL.
Looks like you got it figured out, though. There are a lot of guys on this forum that are waaaaaay smarter than me!
Clay

My starter was not engaging all of the time. I fixed it by doing 2 things.

• Synthetic Gear oil inside the bendix to free up the spin.
• Fresh white lithium grease on gears.
• New Shorai battery.

After those 3 things my starter was engaging great! The downside was that the repeated removal of the side case flattened the gasket and the bendix was now hanging up on the ring gear and not releasing. I called Gofasters.com. They checked my VIN and found that my bike was eligible for a free gasket replacement. They sent 3 gaskets, of various thicknesses, to me right away. I installed the thickest gasket of the 3 and everything is working great! I bought the bike brand new and this is the best the starter has ever worked! So glad that Gas Gas stepped up to the plate! :