Tire warmer or small electric blanket for engine?

[Steve]

Not sure if full synthetic oil was available back in 83, maybe it's too slippery for the old school 3-roller set up.

Synthetic oil is no more "slippery" than dino oil, and slipperiness of oil has no affect on whether the starter clutch works.

When you push the starter button, the three rollers wedge into place, which grabs the crank, I don't see how oil would prevent that.

Starter clutch problems seem to plague the larger bikes more than the smaller ones. My son's 1000 has no issues, my other son's 650 has no issues and my wife's and my 850s have no issues, so my experience working on starter clutches is limited to working on bikes for others, and there have been a few. In fact, I just finished up an 1100GL, but its problem was loose mounting screws, not issues with the rollers.

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[bobgroger]

Everytime I decide go for a ride, I walk out to the garage wondering if it's gonna start. It usually doesn't, even in the summer.
Sometimes I get lucky when the SC doesn't snatch and I'm pleasantly surprised. Maybe if I went back to dino oil things would be better, who knows.
Not sure if full synthetic oil was available back in 83, maybe it's too slippery for the old school 3-roller set up.

I have never experienced a starter clutch issue on my 3 1100s. Do you have high compression pistons? Timing advancer? Small end crank with spinning stator maybe? I have a small end stator\clutch if you want to try it, and a flywheel puller you can borrow.....

Edit...just noticed you have a Kat. '83 is a one-off stator and clutch IIRC, I can't help you there. I can still offer my puller....

[Carter Turk]

I've had all manner of issues with SC's. Whenever I've inspected the SC, the rollers looked like someone scraped them with 36 grit sand paper, as well as the gear.
That's a bit of an exageration, but they're not smooth, round shiny. Broken bolts, shot pins, shattered gears, damaged magnets, internal engine damage have all happened because of the SC failing to turn the motor over.
This is a large taper left end 1150, with a tad more compression and bore. Not really trying to get into a debate about the SC, but was just bouncing the idea of warmer internals helping start up or not. It seems that it does help, as start up happens much easier when warm for me at least.

It's about 20 degrees here now, I would suspect if my garage or engine was heated, start up would be less laborious.

[greg78gs750]

having said what I did, I have had good results using a heat lamp (the clamp on kind you put in a chicken coop or whatever) to warm things up a bit in the wintertime, might be better than an electric blanket

[nastyjones]

When I was a young lad, I started riding on BSA's and Triumphs. Those bloody things were hard to start on a summer day let alone the winter. So, I simply plugged in my trouble light and laid it on the cylinder block under the carbs. It kept the oil warm enough and the bike would usually start even on the coldest morning and winter gets very cold in Canada.

Paul Jones

https://www.gofastinnovations.com

[habsdoc]

An old car heater or hair drier pointed at the sump for 15 or 20 minutes with a blanket thrown over top of the bike will have it warmed up good. Used to have to do that on my old sleds after hauling them for hours at -40. Worked every time.