Am I right in thinking I need a new starter?

[Guest]

Bike starts fine when cold, barely cranks if at all when hot. New battery, new stator, charges fine. new starter solenoid, new brushes, recently adjusted valves. It'll bump start, I can jump it from a car battery. I was messing around with my multimeter to see what I could see, and found that I've got continuity from the battery neg to the starter + post when not engaged, which seems like a bad armature to me. Bike budget is tight ( as always) is there anything else I should try before buying a starter?

[RGM]

If you can start by jumping it from you car probably not your starter. You may have a bad ground. Use your multi meter to see what the ohms are from battery neg to ground, Are your lights bright when not running?

[Steve]

... I've got continuity from the battery neg to the starter + post when not engaged, ...

Nothing wrong with that, really. There should be continuity, as you are reading through the brushes and the armature.

I would be more concerned if you saw NO continuity, which would indicate an open armature.

.

[ezmack]

yeah lights are bright. Think you might be right about the ground, checked just now had 2 ohms. Its cooled down enough to give a couple cranks and it was up to 150ohms after cranking it over a few times. IIRC is was at around 45 after my ride when I was messing around initially

let me revise this since I just checked again. .8 with everything off battery - to engine, 65 with key on kill switch off, 110 with kill switch on

[rockford]

Armature

I had a problem that was identical to yours. I took the starter apart (which is really easy). The brushes looked just fine but the armature was gunky and covered with carbon.

I took a piece of steel wool and polished the armature until it shined like new......that took all of about 30 seconds. I put it back together and it has worked perfectly for over 3 years since doing that.

[ezmack]

Yeah I cleaned it when I replaced the brushes. It worked better for 2 or 3 starts then went back to doing what it's doing now. Think I'll replace my big ground and the starter solenoid to starter cable, the are both old maybe I'll see something obvious while I'm at it.

Edit for the sake of the search feature: Went for a good 120-ish mile ride today and it started right up at a gas station when I was next to an obnoxious harley guy who couldn't get his bike started... So I'm callin it fixed.

Replaced battery to solenoid cable, solenoid to starter cable, fuse box, electronic ignition connections, regulator, and stator again. When I originally replaced the stator my regulator was still in the mail, so I just started riding on the new stator with the old regulator which apparently was a poor decision. When I put the new reg in my voltage was low, which is when I realized my stator was fried on one leg. I had a lot of corrosion on one of my fuses and the wires were a bit warm so I replaced the box. After sitting for a few weeks it had a wicked misfire which I tracked down to bad connections to the electronic ignition. The ignition+fusebox replacement made a noticeable difference in how many cranks it takes to fire up. It only takes 1 or 2 instead of 4-6. I think the stator r/r combo is what really solved the slow crank, it'll turn over as long as i need it to now.