Starter Motor Rebuilding

[Rusnak_322]

Any advice?

I am looking to rebuild or buy a rebuilt starter for a 1980 XS400.


The one I have (and the one from the parts bike) will not do anything. I hooked up jumper leads from good motorcycle and my car’s battery to the main wire and grounded the black jumper cable directly to the starter casing. One will turn over very slow- about 5 rpm. The other one is still in the bike and does nothing.


I can’t seem to find any dedicated rebuild kits. Just some on eBay for a Kawasaki that says it will work in the description. I also found a old thread on here where someone bought a rebuilt starter, but I cant find any of those for sale.


Any help is appreciated. I am getting ready to start working on the bike and I want to make sure that it starts on the button. This is going to be my wife’s bike and that is something that she is adamant that it has (she saw what a PITA my CB360 café was after I took the starter off).


BTW: I am in the USA.

 

[drewpy]

they really are simple devices, may just need new brushes, (check first with it apart) or might just need the commutator cleaning between the "fingers".
usually a good clean/lube of bearings etc are needed.
there's a how to in the manual

 

[Jeff0133]

A good clean(gets very dirty in there),new brushes...should do the trick

 

[MerlinDudley]

As Drewpy said, the usual culprit is the dirty commutator rotor/dirty or worm brushes.
I had some of the same kind of problem on my old 80 CB750 F2, I had problems with the starter motor, it turned out to be the commutator, it had a build up of what I can only describe as "Varnishing" on the commutator rotor! This was easily cleaned off, using a proprietry contact cleaner, then when I fitted it with new brushes, it was like new again, and it lasted well too, as I sold the bike, 5 years later, and it was still working like new!

Merlin

 

[josh_makesstuff]

I'm having to rebuild a broken starter with a brushes kit form Amazon. after cleaning out all of the black nastiness, do I have to lube it with anything when reinstalling everything? Grease, oil?