2018 Starter Fix Thread - Continued.

[farmerj]

I'm interested in what the flywheel issue or change is, if anyone knows (or finds out).

And fwiw, a 180cca battery would not work in my bike - but the 240cca Antigravity battery recommended by GG did the trick!

Jeff

[Slideshow]

Originally Posted by farmerj

I'm interested in what the flywheel issue or change is, if anyone knows (or finds out).

And fwiw, a 180cca battery would not work in my bike - but the 240cca Antigravity battery recommended by GG did the trick!

Jeff

Just had mine done today, if I understood correctly, the flywheel change alters the timing from the original 30 degrees to 60 degrees.

[Gasser Nate]

I still think a lot of the problems guys are having is with leads. I replaced all the leads with much larger cables and added a cable from the battery to the motor and mine spins up from cold on the stock 130cca battery.
The stock leads are dismal in size. I also added an extra earth cable from the battery/sub frame back to the harness earth point to eliminate any losses there too.
But by all means get every update done from the factory now cause it’ll help massively. I’d like to know details on the flywheel changes too, mine was done under warranty but had no starting issues prior to this. The only issue I’d had that wasn’t fixed with updates was a knock under load when hot that was sorted with head machining by TSP in Australia.
Hopefully I get out on the thing this weekend as it has been too long!

[Jakobi]

Originally Posted by Gasser Nate

I still think a lot of the problems guys are having is with leads. I replaced all the leads with much larger cables and added a cable from the battery to the motor and mine spins up from cold on the stock 130cca battery.
The stock leads are dismal in size. I also added an extra earth cable from the battery/sub frame back to the harness earth point to eliminate any losses there too.
But by all means get every update done from the factory now cause it?ll help massively. I?d like to know details on the flywheel changes too, mine was done under warranty but had no starting issues prior to this. The only issue I?d had that wasn?t fixed with updates was a knock under load when hot that was sorted with head machining by TSP in Australia.
Hopefully I get out on the thing this weekend as it has been too long!

I don't think anything has been done to mine.. out of the crate onto the floor and into my hands.

Head cut, bike a solid going over.. earths rubbed back and that's it. No starting issues on or off the button.. Haven't put many hours on her though.

Even had people comment how well she cranked over when I had the spark plug out pumping the water out of the crankcase after a creek was a bit deeper than expected.

[fred99999au]

I'd be interested in the amount of effort needed to move the helical gear of the whole mechanism if the starter motor was removed. Should be minimal as mine is now is my guess.

I can stick my finger and pretend I am starter motor and turn the gear with minimal resistance. Bendix wont engage as my digit is too slow, but it moves freely.

Spins like a top with the stock battery.

Based on what I have seen on my GP300, the axle shaft tolerance is too tight and binds it, requiring a swag of extra torque, also meaning extra load on the starter motor. YMMV.

[farmerj]

There is a pic of a modified flywheel here (bottom of the page), but I don't know how the change affects things, what the advantage is, or how to get it done...

Jeff

(PS - not sure from the posts in that thread if that's a new/'18 or an older GG flywheel...)

[GG221]

Just wanted to update that I fixed my starter problem. The issue was the bendix cover. It is very easy fix, the only thing you will need to buy is the bendix cover gasket and flywheel cover gasket. When you remove the covers the gaskets are going to fall apart.
- pull your bendix and bendix cover off and remove the bendix assembly. With the bendix out, stick the bendix onto the cover and you can see that it is a very tight fit. It should not be this tight. It is so tight that it is not allowing the bendix shaft to rotate. It needs to be able to rotate freely. I used toothpaste and a Dremel with a polishing wheel on it and polished the inside of the bendix cover where the bendix shaft sits. Toothpaste works great because of the abrasives inside it, but it will not take away too much of the material from the metal. If you don?t have a dremel you could use your finger and a rag and run around inside the hole in the bendix cover, it will just take a little longer. After I finished polishing the cover I went to fit the bendix back in the cover and it slides in effortlessly and spins freely. I put a tiny bit of grease in there and around the gears and put everything back together. The bike now starts instantly first stab of the button, even in gear.

[Booki]

Originally Posted by GG221

Just wanted to update that I fixed my starter problem. The issue was the bendix cover. It is very easy fix, the only thing you will need to buy is the bendix cover gasket and flywheel cover gasket. When you remove the covers the gaskets are going to fall apart.
- pull your bendix and bendix cover off and remove the bendix assembly. With the bendix out, stick the bendix onto the cover and you can see that it is a very tight fit. It should not be this tight. It is so tight that it is not allowing the bendix shaft to rotate. It needs to be able to rotate freely. I used toothpaste and a Dremel with a polishing wheel on it and polished the inside of the bendix cover where the bendix shaft sits. Toothpaste works great because of the abrasives inside it, but it will not take away too much of the material from the metal. If you don?t have a dremel you could use your finger and a rag and run around inside the hole in the bendix cover, it will just take a little longer. After I finished polishing the cover I went to fit the bendix back in the cover and it slides in effortlessly and spins freely. I put a tiny bit of grease in there and around the gears and put everything back together. The bike now starts instantly first stab of the button, even in gear.

Do you have any photo's of the process?

Well done on figuring it out!

[GG221]

I don't have any pictures but its a pretty easy process once you know what to do and look for

-disconnect battery and disconnect power supply to starter, pull starter
-Remove stator cover
- look in through the back of the stator cover, there is a bigger fine tooth gear and a smaller gear with not as fine teeth. you can only see about half of that fine tooth gear. you should be able to turn the fine tooth gear easily with your finger. If it does turn effortlessly, the problem is not your bendix. It might be the starter or some other issue. If it is hard to turn the fine tooth gear...
-flip the cover back over and remove the small bendix cover
- from here you can pull the bendix assembly straight out. pull it out.
- with the bendix pulled out fit the bendix cover onto it, there is an indent in the cover where the bendix shaft sits.
- You will probably find that it is a very tight fit for the shaft to go into its place in the cover, it should not be like this, you need to make the hole a little bigger
- don't use sandpaper or anyting like that, you don't want to take too much material off. I used toothpaste and a dremel with a polishing wheel.
-When I was able to fit the bendix cover to the shaft with no resistance I cleaned out all of the old grease and a tiny bit of new grease in there, put the bendix back in and put the cover on.
-with the bendix back in place and the cover on, put the starter back in the assembly but leave everything off of the bike. Hook the starter leads back up and connect the battery. give it a few starts to get everything moving smoothly.
-put the stator cover back on and hook everything back up to normal and try it out.

when I removed the covers both of the gaskets fell apart so you will need to have new gaskets. you could use some high temp silicone if you really wanted to but a gasket will be much cleaner. I got them for 5$ from gasgaspartshouse.com

[SS109]

Good job and thanks for sharing!