1984 VF500 Project

Sparking is expected initially until a good connection is established. Is the solenoid good? Large channel locks should work to remove an oil filter absent the correctly fitted wrench. If that fails the screwdriver method should work.

 

Thanks @Totaled TL and @squirrelman : I was worried that amount of sparking was abnormal. I'll clean the threads and nut that I was connecting positive to.

Should I be able to turn the pinion by hand? I cannot.

@Totaled TL I haven't gotten around to testing the solenoid yet; I was testing the starter completely disconnected.

 

pinion is usually too difficult to turn by hand, gear too small to get a grip.

 

Thanks @squirrelman - that's good to know then.

@Totaled TL mentioned a poor connection leading to sparking, so I cleaned off screw, nuts and washer on starter. First I tried using some sandpaper, that was too hard to get into the threads and contours so I soaked in Evaporust for an hour or so. Dried them off and then connected to my battery. It spins nicely now with far fewer sparks.

Other than spinning, however, the pinion stays stationary - I expected it to move outwards with the centrifugal force so that the pinion could engage with gearing used to actually crank the engine. That's how the few starters I've looked at (on snowmobiles and my lawn tractor) have worked, anyways.

Is this normal for this starter?

EDIT: today I learned that some starters use a starter clutch and not the mechanism where the pinion spins out by centrifugal force to engage the gears. Learning more…

 

I think this will be my goal for the weekend (I only see my bike on the weekend). A little worried about opening it up. The last time I opened a starter (for my lawn tractor) I couldn’t put it back together again and ended up buying a new one. LOL

 

The 500 has a clutch, which it sounds like you realized.

The starters are not that complicated but there are some washers you need to keep track of if you pull it apart. You want a nice, clean work area that won't get disturbed where you can lay everything out in an exploded view manner. There are thrust washers (metal and fiber) that want to stick together and/or stick to the armature. Sometimes you can't even tell there's washers... until they fall off when you are cleaning. Where the fuck did they go? What order were they in? Do I even have them all still?

A can on electronics cleaner for the armature, windings and brushes. An old school red rubber eraser is awesome for cleaning the armature and then finishing with more electronics cleaner. Learned the erasure trick from my slot car days as a kid. It was right in the maintenance section of my AFX manual.

This is a really good preventative maintenance item at the very least. I do it to every new-to-me bike I get. The amount of nasty brush dust that comes out is amazing, and the motor spins up so nice afterwards.

 

Thanks - that's all great advice. I usually do this work squatting on my gravel driveway, and wonder why I can't find so many parts. LOL.

Now my big problem is... I don't know where I put the starter!!! Looked for it at my cottage where my bike is...couldn't find it, nor is it at my house. It's in one of those two places... unless my wife "hid" it cleaning up....

 

OK, assuming I can find the starter (LOL) and clean it, what's my next best step? I haven't drained or replaced the fluids. Replace the oil and turn the crankshaft nut with a ratchet to get oil circulated, then see if it starts? Or should I do a flush then replace? Are there other imperatives before trying to start the bike? I have no idea how long the bike sat.

I did electrolysis on the tank and it's pretty clean now, but the fuel cap doesn't seem to fit in properly, petcock diaphragm is torn and filter stuck inside tank. So instead of working out that stuff, I'm thinking of using an aux fuel tank if I get around to trying to get the engine to run.

I'm pretty sure I've seen recommendations to not mess with things on this bike in particular unless I know something is wrong - including messing with carbs and motor.

 

OK. I opened up the starter and am looking to clean it up. Brushes came out and I'm trying to figure out how to put them back in their holders. Any suggestions? I've seen some videos, some using sockets but the layout seems different and I can't exactly see how to use their suggestions. One person recommended using fishing line to tie them back in their holders but seemed like it might be hard to tie it there. I was considering trying safety wire, not sure if that wire would be too thick.

Off to buy electronics cleaner and compressed air.

 

I figured this out. I ended up prying the brush springs back and then over their holder first, then pushing the armature into position. I was worried doing this that this might break the springs, as it felt like it took a lot of pressure, but it was fine. I was also worried that it might uncoil itself, but it didn't.

I found that the parts diagrams online aren't very good about identifying the washers and shims. @Captain 80s advice about taking pictures was great but unfortunately I didn't take quite enough. On the commutator side I had 3 washers, two metal and one non-conductive. I didn't remember what order they came off and I didn't take pictures of them. I put the non-conductive one on the side closer to the body under the assumption that it's there to prevent contact.

 

Not sure what I did to make things better, but shaft rotates freely by hand now! Starter fires on bench with far fewer sparks.