On Fri, Apr 09, 2004 at 04:46:22PM -0000, Jeff Wight wrote:
> I was cruising at 70mph on Wednesday and all of the sudden it felt
> like I lost all power and could hear a high pitched whine. It went
> away as fast as it came and all seemed normal. I started slowing and
> heading for the shoulder and it happened again.
>
> I towed the bike home and pulled off the left side cover. The starter
> gear doesn't turn very freely so I'm assuming the one-way clutch has
> failed or been gunked up. My starter is now dead.
>
> I recently replaced my doohickey, I supposed I must have goofed it up
> somehow, though I was very careful about keeping everything clean and
> torquing to spec. I rode it for a week or so after changing the
> doohickey with no apparent problems.
This is what happened to my bike not too long after my doohickey
replacement. In my case, the failure point was the bushing inside the
large starter gear directly under the magneto. Ultimately, that gear
had to be pulled with a jaw-style puller, the failed bushing had to be
_very_ carefully peeled off the shaft, and then, since pulling the
crankshaft and taking it to a shop was not really in the cards, the
shaft very, very carefully polished to remove the surface imperfections
where the bushing had seized to it.
We never were entirely sure what the ultimate cause of the bushing
failure was. However, the proximate cause was that it got the hell
dinged out of it starting the bike with the doohickey interfering with
the back of the starter gear, because my bike has a particularly
undersize idler shaft, my replacement doohickey was a very early one
that wasn't quite made to spec, and the combination led to the
doohickey tipping out on the shaft at the first adjustment and
whacking the starter gear spider, putting a lot of pressure on that
bushing.
At the time of failure, the oil level in my bike was low -- not
critically low, but low -- because I'd just come off a very long
highway ride and didn't understand yet that running at 6K+ RPM
consumes oil, so hadn't been feeding new oil in along the way.
That probably contributed to the bushing seizure. Also, it's
possible that I got some grit into that bushing while replacing
the doohickey (though there were no gouges on the crankshaft to
indicate this), and, finally, when I pulled the rotor the first
time to do the initial doohickey swap, I'm pretty sure I did *not*
break the specified 120 lb-ft of torque; I think it was undertorqued
at least somewhat at the factory and may have been wobbling on the
shaft.
To make a long story short:
1) When you replace the doohickey, check that the idler shaft on
your bike isn't so undersize that the doohickey can tip back
and bind -- if it is, you don't really have much choice but to
do each adjustment with the bike lying fully on its side, or
pull the cover to check that it hasn't tipped (best option)
You didn't report loud clattering at start, so I assume this
didn't happen to you. Good.
2) Be *very* careful to not get grit into the assembly of stuff
that goes on the crankshaft any time you have it apart. When
the bike's running at highway speed, that middle gear's sitting
still, with the shaft spinning inside it at 4-7,000 RPM. That
bushing is important -- and fragile, and not very well lubricated.
3) Check your oil level regularly during and after highway riding.
4) If you hear that "wheeeeeeeeeeee!" noise, *pull in the clutch and
stop immediately*. The starter doesn't like being spun by the
motor.
4) You may just have been hosed by poor assembly, in particular
undertorquing of the rotor holder bolt. I believe Mike's seen
engines in which the rotor could be pulled off the shaft *by hand*,
which is pretty darned scary if you ask me.
> Has anybody ever seen the starter gear clutch fail? Does anyone have
> a used starter they want to sell me for an A6?
I've got a starter gear sitting here with a good clutch but no bushing.
Kawasaki won't sell you just the bushing but you may be able to get a
local machine shop to press one in; I can't help with the starter itself
but if it is the gear that's hosed, you're welcome to mine if you think
you can use it. However, if I were you I'd pull everything apart and
be _very_ sure you can actually get the gear off the shaft and that there
is no bushing remnant frozen to the shaft itself.
Thor