Reassemble Starter Motor

[SoulMan]

First off... sorry I just realized the picture isnt very good... But I think it has everything that I need.

So I took the starter motor apart to clean it and when I put it back together and tighten the motor case down the motor wont spin. Before I tighten it down it will spin if I am holding it with the brush side up. I am thinking in the side that has the brushes that I might be missing a spacer or something. There are 4 of them. The small one should go on the brush side and the other three there are two thin ones and one a little bit thicker. I am not sure in what order they are suppose to go on the opposite side or if the order would matter.

I worry I am missing a washer/spacer thing on the brush side because that seems to be where there is some friction is I just put the brush side of the armature into the cap there and hold it with a small amount of force with my hands I can feel the friction that would want to keep it from turning when its all tighten together. Should there be a high speed bearing grease in there like would be for brakes. I did clean the cap out and maybe cleaned it too much in that area or maybe I am just missing another small washer that goes in that area.

I see there is a washer kit 371-81809-20-00 but on ebay its quite expensive. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[JJJAADD]

 

[SoulMan]

Yeah I saw that. Everything is in the right place so I am not sure why it is a no go for this starter.

 

[JJJAADD]

I had about what you have pictured, is it tightened down too much? Maybe try it without extra washers in there? mine had 4 of the same size washer in it though...

 

[SoulMan]

I tried just barely tightening it but still no luck. I bought a replacement starter off of xschris. I am going to take it apart and compare it to mine to see if I can find out how to get my broken one working. I will just be more careful during the disassembly process so that hopefully I dont break the working one haha.

 

[xschris]

I would leave the good one that I sent you alone. It works perfect. Taking a 40 year old one apart might be asking for trouble. I would take your other one to a electric motor repair shop or someone that works on alternators/starters. They would know what they are looking at.

 

[SoulMan]

I would leave the good one that I sent you alone. It works perfect. Taking a 40 year old one apart might be asking for trouble. I would take your other one to a electric motor repair shop or someone that works on alternators/starters. They would know what they are looking at.

Good point. We shall see if I head your advice

 

[BBS360]

There are two styles of starters too. Not sure when they officially changed but earlier ones have excited field coils in the starter and some have permanent magnets (all have brushes for the armature).

Externally pretty identical.

Taking apart a later version might not help with repairing the earlier model.

 

[xschris]

I am not sure what year I sent him. I had two spare motors. One went into my 80 sg last year and the other I sold him. One was from a 80+ model and the other was xs360 or 77-79 xs400 model bike. I can't remember as I was buying a lot of stuff over the last five years.