Starter clutch built to fail, My GS 1100E

[Anonymous]

Starter clutch built to fail
Has anyone else commented on this as I?m sure starter clutch failure has happened to more than a few of us.
Starter begins to make noise, you ignore it as you?ve owned a Dodge before. Sometime later it stops working with a bit of noise coming from??down there?. You open it up to find the bolts holding the clutch assembly to the rotor have sheered and bits have caused other precious parts to suffer.
Looking closer you see the reason for the failure?75mm bolt shank diameter (not a shank at all but threaded), through a 90 mm bolt hole in the clutch, a 125mm bolt head torqued down over that 90mm hole with a surrounding 135mm recess hole into the clutch. As well the shim plate allows for 2 potential spaces as fixing surfaces. This all begs to go south. How do you build a bolt cutter into an engine? That?s how!

So when I finally get my parts, what is the torque for the clutch bolts and the crank end rotor nut? Should the rotor be heat shrank to the shaft or am i tempting fate with the magnet glue?

Thanks for any advice. Oh ya , had a great time bumping the bike across 3 ferries to get home. Long story short, BC Ferry workers rock! They all helped the guy out with the limping bike and were dead cheerful about it.

[RacingJake]

I use three 12.9 grade bolts and an allen wrench with a box end wench on the end while I'm holding the clutch assy on a work bench. These bolts can take a licking.

My book is in the garage but I think the nut is torque around 100 foot pounds. I'll be installing my clutch tormorrow.

[Richie]

for my outlaw pro street bike i broke 3 of them last summer, i finally wised up and put new bolts in it and then welded it that B!T*H wont break now...richie

[LarryT]

I just broke all three bolts that were 3/8" grade 8 on an engine that has 7.8 to 1 comp. and a dyna 2000 that retards the timing 12 degrees when it is starting. On a drag only bike i have removed that big hub and then weld the two pieces together worked perfect .I have also ran long bolts all the way though and put nuts on the other side as to double nut it . I think the bolts come loose then there is movement this lets the drive hammer on the bolts

[scotty]

for my outlaw pro street bike i broke 3 of them last summer, i finally wised up and put new bolts in it and then welded it that B!T*H wont break now...richie

I also have welded bolts.

[lecroy]

I have never had a problem with the 83 MY street bikes I had.

The electric start race engines I built had problems. The last one a built has no charging system, so I cut everything off and put a nylon lock nut on the inside with grade 8 bolts. No problems of any sorts, but it's a low compression engine and starts on 24 volts. Then again, it only gets started maybe 10 times a week on average?