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    #1

    Running without starter

    Hi all,
    How do racers mod their bikes to work without starters? I've seen that it is possible to get a stator cover plate and remove everything but I'm not into this. Is it possible to just remove the starter and plug up the hole in the motor? I ask this because I pulled my starter to find that I did not buy the correct brushes. Would running the bike without the starter cause the idler gear to run too fast and thus destroy it? This is my main concren as it appears in photographs that the starter holds the idler gear in place while the motor is running. This would cause the big stator gear to free-wheel rather than spin like it would without the starter.

    Any info would be appreciated.

    Thanks, Steve
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    #2
    Removing the starter shouldn't have any adverse effects. When running, the idler gear (the one from the starter clutch to the starter gear) shouldn't be turning anyway. The starter clutch will be freewheeling.

    Just plug the hole so you keep the oil where it belongs.

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      #3
      Should be fine Just remember to park on a hill It's a common mod for drag racing, but they use an external removable starter to fire the bike.

      Comment

        #4
        Just make sure that what you plug the hole with does not fall into the motor...

        Hap

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          #5
          It's good to hear I can skip the reassembly as I've already resurfaced the commutators and brushes twice. I will be reinstalling the starter's output housing with the shaft hole plugged up with tinfoil. Seeing as tinfoil is very porous I've coated the inner side with a silicone sealant. Now all I need to do is bolt the housing back together sans insides (oops, Americans may not catch onto this one...think of Sans Plomb). If I can dig up a good nut and bolt I'll forget about the tinfoil.

          Steve

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            #6
            Back in 1989 or 90 I ran my GS850GZ with no starter at all for a few weeks, while waiting to locate a starter. (No eBay or internet then). Bike ran just fine, but had to make sure I was parked on top of some kind of incline. I became pretty adept at bumpstarting it. It didn't need much room at all, and it fired right away.

            Finally got the starter, but it was defective, so back to the square 1. A motorcycle rally in Virginia that I wanted to attend was coming up, so I borrowed the starter off a friend's 1979 GS850GN. It fit the 82 perfectly, even though the starters were different (two brushes on the old one, four on the new one).

            Hearing from my friend that he'd had no starter problems, I then got an old-style two-brush starter, which worked perfectly from that point.

            My GK starter is a newer-style four-brush unit, but I have an old 850 starter in my parts bin as a backup, just in case...

            Nick

            Comment

              #7
              It worked out well. There were a couple of times where I thought I could here the idler gear but I'll never know for sure. This only happened when my tach was pointing in the red anyway... It certainly is hard on the lower back pushing my little 400.

              Steve

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