Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Sportster Starter Relay

Well, with help I think I have narrowed down my starter problem. Now that the solenoid has been rebuilt, and operating fine I might add, plus my starter is working well, I pulled it apart and it still has life left in it. Actually I had not planned on looking at the inner workings of the starter but when moving it on the bench it had a mind of it's own. Going through the parts Danny gave me the starter was laying right in the way so I picked it up to move it and, well, the commutator/windings slid out on the bench. I had to get some clamps to hold the brushes to re-assemble it. The brush's are worn a might but there is still life left in it. The commutator (What the brushes ride on) should be dressed up and some emery cloth taken to it but no need doing that until replacing the brushs. (Winter project?)

All said and done and back together in the previous post told of the bike not wanting to activate the starter after a couple of tries.
On the solenoid I ran a jumper wire from the hot side to the small middle terminal and whirre, whirre, whirre went the starter. Using the jumper the solenoid clicks strong and the starter turns the engine. Sooo, the problem is the starter relay now. Should be an easy fix, easy to get to, reasonable price on part, hopefully wont take long to do. I was advised to forgo the HD part and just get one, metal cased not plastic, from an auto parts supply.
Keeping fingers crossed I get the part tomorrow.

2 comments:

Willy D said...

No! Don’t! Stop! Get the emery cloth away! It’ll scratch the segments and make them arc. A Scotch-Brite pad works best for smoothing the commutator. Also make sure the area between the segments is clean. Light pressure with an o-ring pick works well. Needs to be slightly below the segments. Just don’t scrape too much of the mica out from between them.

WooleyBugger said...

Willy D,

No! Don't! Stop! Sounds like a girl friend I had way back. Almost made my day.

Thanks for the info, Glad you kept me from making that fubar.