Starter Motor Crunch

[denny]

After a faultless weekend of riding I managed to screw something up...not sure exactly what though. Geared up and ready to go I hit the starter button and possibly released a little too early as it didnt fire up. So...I tried again assuming it would start immediatly, however I was met with this almighty racket which I can only describe as a blender with metal bits in it churning away. Had to bump start it to get home.

Is this due to one or more of the magnets in the motor coming off or could the cogs be chewed up? It was late last night and I didnt have access to tools to take the motor off to take a look. I'm sure I'll find out when I take it to my mechanic, just wanted an idea how much this is going to potentially set me back Fecking annoying that this happens 3 days before I go on holiday

 

[Ian J Hartley]

You won't really know until you strip the starter motor.

Unlikely the planetary gearing. More likely the magnets as you say. The other thing that can go wrong is the metal cover on the gear housing coming adrift and welding it's self to the armature. If this happens you get a ratchet, but you might also get all the electrics dropping off (like a flat battery) as the starter shorts your electrics straight to ground.

Read the sticky in this section about starter strip.

If you have the time to repair and can't get parts locally then you can get cheap parts from www.autospark.eu they are based in Greece, which I understand is quite close to Turkey.

 

[Steptoe]

Could be a cracked casing -could be the flywheel ring gear - could be, could be, could be - until you actually remove the starter motor and have a look you'll hear lots of could be's.
And none of them could be right.

 

[denny]

Could be a cracked casing

New top bit fitted and all is ok!

 

[Steptoe]

So...I tried again assuming it would start immediatly, however I was met with this almighty racket which I can only describe as a blender with metal bits in it churning away.

That was the major clue ...... - if the magnets etc had failed it wouldn't have continued cranking while making the noise you describe. .

My first thought, that sounds like a cracked casing.