Stalled and won't start

[vavision]

Weird problem with the V. I let the girlfriend give her a go. Unfortunately she got distracted and didn't pull the clutch when dropping into first. The bike jumped forward and stalled.

I tried to restart it and at first I got the normal starter whirring but no go. Then after  2 ten seconds tries the starter stopped completely. I tried to push start them but couldn't get it to push start either.

Any thoughts?

[Lucky]

EVERYTIME my wife touches my pc, IT CRASHES! (& other than that it Never crashes) so first rule, don't let 'em near it, lol.

i suspect you flooded it.

I envy you guys where it's warm enough to touch your bikes...

[vavision]

It doesn't seem like a flooding would make the starter not work though...

[Night Vision]

Any thoughts?

misery loves company? either that or there's a starter flu going around

[vavision]

I already rebuilt my starter...

[Lucky]

i missed the dead starter..

time for a test light..

[vavision]

What do I test? How do I test?

[Coil Coyle]

http://ridersofvision.net/forum/index.php?topic=3879.msg30939#msg30939

;)

coil

[vavision]

Ok 100 ohms at the starter relay

Battery was a bit weak from a night in the cold but this is what I got
11.28 V sitting
11.46 V while trying to start

I checked the starter wiring and found no continuity with ground. I checked the starter and while starting it was getting 11.77 V.

I tried pushing it again, didn't work. At one point I hit the starter and got a faint whir sound for about 2 seconds.

Does this narrow it down any? Is there anyway that the bike lurching forward destroyed my starter or caused some mechanical problem?

[vavision]

It seems to me like it's a problem with the starter. If there's no drop of voltage when I try to start it, then it can't be drawing power. If it was gummed up, it should still buzz and have some sort of draw right?

I'm going to go back out again and check it (did I mention I had to leave it at a community college parking lot). If I check the resistance between the starter and the casing I should have a general idea if there's a bad connection in the starter right?

[Superfly]

Just re-built a dead starter I had.  It is just a little messy & time consuming.. but when you are done, that baby works like a gem!  Started fast & ran great this morning!  Rebuilt starters ROCK!!!

[vavision]

The problem is that I just rebuilt mine... Oh well.

On a related note, my other bike I'm working on an 1981 Yamaha xs 400 has a dead short in the starter. Luckily those are on ebay for $10. That's worth it to me.

[Superfly]

Did you replace the brushes?

[vavision]

I didn't myself, my step dad did.... though from everything I've checked that seems to be the problem... and yamaha wants $60 for the brushes or $550 for a new starter...

Anyone else try to make their own brushes? Anything work?

[Superfly]

Part #5 from DGY http://yamaha.dgy.com/parts.aspx has the Brush Holder assembley (part #5) for $36.39.? Been thinkin' of picking up one of them for myself.? I brought some brushes off of ebay and wired them in myself.? That works also.

[Lucky]

As i mentioned in another post recently, there are brushes out there designed for charging systems that LOOK like the stock ones, but are made of softer material & will wipe out within the first few hours of operation, so you might want to check & make sure that's not what happened.

Superfly, can you give us more details of the ones you bought? i've tried to replace the stock ones with no sucess.  either the ones i had needed to be soldered, (i wasn't too thriled at the prospect of soldering high amp pigtails) or they had no (insulated) bolt & switching it over with the insulation just didn't work out....

--Lucky

[vavision]

Has anyone tried teh brushes from old bike barn? http://www.oldbikebarn.com/part.php?id=1937&subcategory=Starter%20Brushes&bike=&DisplayPerPage=20

[Night Vision]

VA- if I was in your situation (and I could've been,  because I just went through the starter rebuild and fortunately my brushes were still serviceable)

I would buy the whole OEM brush assembly for $36 vs the brushes only for $22.

to me, $14, to make sure I had the right parts/brushes, not have to solder them in?, and not slow the group down in '07 (where's the tongue in cheek "smiley")  is worth it!!!.

just my $0.02

[vavision]

Sure would have if I hadn't been impulsive and bought the brushes when I saw them.

In my weird and wacky websearch I came across this- what do you guys make of it?

http://sites.wsupdate.com/acelouisvillewarehouse/index.cfm?id=2207&fuseaction=browse&pageid=102

[Superfly]

I had to do the Pigtails & soldering.  I did like 4 or 5 small pigtails.  I could not find the brush with the bolt, but had some spare brushes laying around and figured I would give it a try.  3 months later, it is still starting good.