Strange failure on my 1100 Katana starter motor

[John Kat]

My 1100 Kat was getting more and more difficult to start despite a healthy battery.
I finally opened the starter motor to discover that 3 of the 4 magnets inside the stator were loose!
Of course, you can't buy the stator alone so I decided to buy a complete new unit from Rick's motorsport.
Here's what the old motor looks like inside:

IMG_0744.jpg

[pete]

I had that on the 450 John, two of the four were loose.

I cleaned and degreased the inside thoroughly then used JB Weld to glue them back in place. That was a number of years ago now and still going strong.

[John Kat]

I had that on the 450 John, two of the four were loose.

I cleaned and degreased the inside thoroughly then used JB Weld to glue them back in place. That was a number of years ago now and still going strong.

I thought about that Pete but the magnets were quite damaged and given the torque needed to start the 1100 Kat I wanted to make sure it would work on the long run!

[pete]

Ah sensible decision! One of the magnets on the 450 broke in half, the other was ok. It doesn't crank quite as well as it did initially but certainly well enough to spin the little parallel twin over. In the case of a Kat, yep I'm with you there, especially with damaged magnets.