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At one point I pulled my starter cover off of my bike and left it off(not a good idea.) The next day I ended up somehow spilling some gas down there and got the starter a little wet. I didn't want to fry the starter so I just let it set there in my garage until the next day. I've cranked it just a few times since then, and now my starter will just "click" and do nothing else. It really acts like the battery is dead, but I've already charged the battery to be sure it had a good charge. And now that I'm thinking about it... I guess it is possible that my battery charger has went out on me...

Is it possible that I killed the starter even though I let it set and dry out? Or is there something else that I should look for?

If you have a 12 volt system jump your bike off with the car battery.

When I was trouble shooting my starter I know it wasn't working when I put hooked battery power directly to it via the positive end of the battery and jumper cables. If that makes the thing go, your solenoid might be bad, or something is wrong with the wiring. Just a thought.

it is unlikely that gas hurt the starter--i have used gas to clean them up when rebuilding them when i couldnt get some less dangerous cleaner.

Less dangerous? where's the fun in that!?!?

Thanks for the info guys, I'll hook it up to the car this weekend and see what happens.

the fun part is when you spend a whole day pulling the starter and going to get the rebuild kit and cleaning everything up real pretty then putting it back on and it still dont work.

9000white wrote:the fun part is when you spend a whole day pulling the starter and going to get the rebuild kit and cleaning everything up real pretty then putting it back on and it still dont work.

agreed. If you pull it make sure you do the bench test before putting it back on. Put it on a vice, hook jumper cables to a battery, connect the negative to the cover (where the mounting bolts are generally has a good place for it) and then touch the positive to the stud for a second. If it sparks and revs your happy. Don't do this without putting it in a vice or it'll jump around/out of your hand.

If it doesn't work when you put it back on, make sure the clutch is disengaged (found out the hard way on an xs400 when the cold weather caused the oil to thicken and hold the clutch together. I thought it was a starter problem but when I put the bike on the centerstand it started right up), if that doesn't help then lord have mercy you'll have to check the electrical stuff.