Broken cone on brand new starter

[fbenach]

Hello everyone... here´s a weird failure to see if someone could resolve it, because we just went out of ideas!!

A few weeks ago I bought this starter from eBay, CALTRIC is the brand...
The starter worked perfectly for about 3 weeks until one night I started the bike and a strong sound came out of the starter area...
the next day we found that the cone broke...
The vendor told me that the reason could be that the starter was not tighten enough, but we do feel it was ok... he sent me a new one anyways, but now I´m not so sure I want to use it...
The only convincing idea we had was a poor quality on the material...

Anyone has seen something like this?

Thanks in advance!!

[tvrla]

This is a Valeo copy?

I have no idea why this could have happened - the casting doesn't look defective, so I doubt it was anything to do with that. Take a close look at all the pieces and make sure nothing binds or collides with that housing.

[nhmaf]

All I could offer is speculation - maybe it wasn't quite aligned properly, even if tightly bolted down, or perhaps the gears in the bendix weren't properly lubed when it was built - if they bind up or don't release when engine starts that might cause the nose to break when the engine revs up.

[fbenach]

Thank you guys...
Wirespokes: I think it is a copy of the valeo starter, as lons as my original Bosch has a few differences with it... it does fit perfectly...

I will keep using my original starter for the moment until the other starter comes in the mail... we are actually interested on see if it fails again, so I guess we will be trying the Caltric starter again...

nhmaf: we felt everything was aligned correctly, but I will make sure we give a little more attention to that detail... thanks!!!

So, worst case scenario, we will have another broken cone, so the other people in the forum knows which starter not to buy!!!

Take care!!!

[Bob_Roller]

Curious why you replaced the starter .

These starters don't fail that often, usually they only need a good cleaning, relubrication, two bushing/bearing repalcement and possibly a new set of brushes .

[fbenach]

Well, the old starter is failing from time to time... when cold, sometimes it takes me up to 10 or 15 starts to have it done... it sounds like it gets stuck...
My mechanic says the "automatic" (that's how he calls it) is not working perfectly anymore... I think he refers to the little black box on top of the body...
We had a tech guy taking a look at it, and he said the same... the inner parts are so old, that they are not sending enough power...
I wish I had better english to explain!!!

[Bob_Roller]

No, your English is not a problem !!!

Sounds like the solenoid contacts on the motor has gotten pitted and not providing full power to the motor .

I was just wondering, like I said, these starters are not difficult to take apart and refurbish .

[fbenach]

Thanks Bob, I will bring your idea to my guy...
One of the things that got me into buying an old motorcycle (besides how cool it is) is to learn a little bit about fixing and troubleshooting... You guys are amazing!!!

Regards,
Fernando

[tvrla]

I'll second that explanation. The solenoid contacts have gotten corroded from the arcing (it's a normal thing) and now there's high resistance. It's like any switch with two large copper contacts. When they come close to each other there's a point where the electricity jumps the gap. When that happens, a bit of oxidation occurs at that point.

That's essentially what's happening in the solenoid - it's a heavy duty electrical switch. Unlike the ones in your house, it's electrically operated, but other than that it's just a simple switch.

Take it apart and file or sand it down till you have bright shiny copper again. That's all it needs.

[k_enn]

One other thing to check:  On some engines, you need check the fit of the starter carefully as there may be a little bit of excess material / protrusion on the engine casting where the starter attaches.  (Usually, this is on the left hand side of the engine casting.  This is not a model year issue, but an individual engine casting issue)  It is possible that this could be over-stressing the starter cone.

k_enn