Where should I have my starter rebuilt?

[visionrevisit]

Does anyone know a place I can have my starter rebuilt and where can I get the rear brake bar bolts?

I ordered a rebuild kit and want someone familiar to refurbish my starter.

[QBS]

Unless the armature is really badly damaged, there really isn't much to rebuilding a V starter except brush replacement and oil seal replacement.

Any automotive starter/alternator/generator repair shop should be able to do the brush replacement job for under $40.00.  I've had my '83 brushes replaced twice, once for $15.00 and once for $30.00.  There is no need for Yamaha specific brushes or replacement of the brush plate assembly.  All your shop needs to do is grind some generic or close facsimile motor brushes to fit into your brush holder assembly and then solder their leads to where the factory brushes were soldered to.

You can probably replace the oil seal with the spring lip design seal upgrade yourself.  Search the forum for how to details.  Once the seal upgrade is done, it is a permanent fix.  Mine was done in '86 and shows zero signs of failure.  The only tricky part to the whole procedure is to be sure and assemble the planetary gears in the starter output gear box so that they DO NOT BIND AT ALL when the armature spins.  There are two of these planetary gears, and if one of them is even just one tooth out of place (very easy to do if one isn't carefull) the armature may appear to spin easily but in reality is binding and will eventually destroy the planetary gear box housing.

The order of repair would be the brushes first and then the oil seal.

[YellowJacket!]

I had a local alternator shop repair mine.  It was a hole in the wall shop but they did excellent work and it cost less than $40.00.

David

[Lucky]

Be aware that there is a big difference in starter type brushes and altenator brushes. starter brushes are a much harder material & altenator brushes will wipe out in very short order.

--Lucky

[Rick G]

For brake stay bolts , I use a grade 12.5 bolt of the same dimensions (hardware store) and add a engine case dowel to take the place of the shoulder . some Yamaha hard ware is  2nd rate, so I don't really want there's