Total Motorcycle Community Forums

A month and a half ago my starter stopped working. I opened it up
and noticed an irregular commutator surface along with shredded
brushes, so I took the starter to a machine shop and had the
commutator surface smoothed out and I replaced the brushes.
Everything worked perfectly until last week when the starter stopped
working again. I checked the brushes and they are once again
shredded.

The machinist did tell me he took off very little material because he
was afraid of taking off too much. He told me to come back if I
still had the problem. In retrospect, I don't think he did a good
job of smoothing it out since he was afraid of damaging it. It looks
like only the edges are smooth and the middle of the commutator
surface feels bumpy.

Here is a picture of the starter and the commutator surface, (it
doesn't feel smooth… in some areas it feels bumpy):

http://tinyurl.com/ckrd9

What do you guys think? Does the commutator thickness seem too small
to aggressively remove more material such that a truly smooth surface
is achieved? Could the problem be something else? Perhaps I didn't
put the brushes in properly or perhaps something else?

A bike parts employee did say it might have something to do with the
(clutch gear?).

I miss riding…..

Gerardo

The commutator doesn't look bad. Did you clean the gaps beyween them? the gaps need cleaning and dressing to remove the edge between them.

Maybe the brushes are too tight (too strong a spring) or too loose. Either will hurt them.

mydlyfkryzis wrote:the gaps need cleaning and dressing to remove the edge between them. Maybe the brushes are too tight (too strong a spring) or too loose. Either will hurt them.

What do you mean dressing? ive heard that before but i am not sure what it means....

the spring did seem strong, so i may want to stretch it a bit to lower the stifness.