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.