Clunk clunk........ Brooooom.

[Oobyscoot]

Got a small issue with the little one and wondered if any of you knowledgable folk had any suggestions.

GS500E runs nicely, (rattles a bit) but runs nicely.......when it starts.

Trouble is, when I hit the button, all I get is a clunk sound. Try again, clunk sound. Press the button a third time and away she goes.

Always the third time, never first or second, always the third time. Its a little annoying and a bit concerning as I need this one for my ride to work and back.

Where should I be looking? what should I be poking at? I have a meter, just need to know where to stick it, so to speak.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Cheers in advance,

Oob.

[Trikerbiker]

Sounds like the Starter Motor Clutch to me Ooby.

[johnr]

depends where the clunk is from , if its from the engine it may well be the starter clutch, however, it may also be a lazy starter motor or a dodgy solenoid, if its a loud click from the sidepannel area it may well only be the solenoid. it may also be a bad earth somewhere in the system. your best bet to start with , is to take off the wire to the starter motor and clean the connection and then trace the same wire back to the battery and take apart, clean and then re assemble each joint. this is the best forst thing you can do, because it may well just be crap connections, and cleaning them costs nothing. it may also be a tired battery.

[John Hopkins]

I agree with johnr but if you can measure the battery voltage first, with the ignition key switched off you should read 14.5 to 14.8 volts across the battery terminals. if it drops when you switch on you either have a knackered battery or something is being lost in the circuit...it may help to run jumper leads from a car that is ticking over to the battery terminals if it starts first time every time you try it is probably the battery...if it doesn't move the earth lead to the frame, if that works you probably have a loose earth connection...John

[Oobyscoot]

OK, put jumpers from the bandit 1200 ticking over to the GS and Clunk Clunk brooom,

Cleaned all the connections and clunk clunk Brooooom,

Rode it to me dads and Brooom, just broom, first go.

Rode home and clunk clunk brooom.

Battery voltage 14.6V ignition off, 14.53V ignition on.

What is involved with checking out the starter clutch? Someone tells me it could be the brushes in the starter motor, could this be correct?

Cheers in advance,


Ooby

[kiffer38]

does it go clunk whir, or just clunk, if clunk whir, starter clutch, if just clunk, most likely brushes

[pyro]

Rode it to me dads and Brooom, just broom, first go.



Only ride it to your dads?

Check the battery leads are tight, otherwise I think its the starter clutch.

[Oobyscoot]

Kiffer,

Just clunk, no whirring.

But that said, its not done it since that one time after going to me dads, used it 7 or 8 times since and no clunk, clunk, just broom.

I think I have convinced myself that its starter brushes. Anyone know where I can get some from or is it ge=onna have to be a new starter?

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

have you tried bridging the 2 posts on the solenoid with a screwdriver ? if it starts ok,then it is def the solenoid.

[Oobyscoot]

I tried the old spanner accross the starter solenoid and clunk clunk broom. But it has still not played up since. Maybe it was something daft and all my fiddling has made it work somehow, but I'm a little bothered that it may come back to bite me in the ass at some point.

Dont want to look a tit pushing it accross the car park at work to get it going.

[John Hopkins]

If it went right all by itself it has to be a connector...corroded, shorting against the frame, loose, John

[Oobyscoot]

As I thought,

Bloody problem came back to bite me in the ass.

Turned out to be the starter solenoid. Closest place to work is a yamaha dealers so she now has the starter solenoid of a yamaha somethingorother installed.

Guy in the dealers said he didn't know what it was for but I could have it for a tenner as some guy ordered it well over 12 months ago and it had been sat on his shelf ever since.

Had to do a bit of modding, and fit an inline fuse as the solenoid did not incorporate the fuse holder as did the last one. And also descovered that the origional was botched so the the fuse was not actually in circuit. Nice.

[wurzel]

I have a dead gs500 in the garage for the same reason. shortly after the clunks started it just spun the starter without engaging.

The flywheel is a real pain to get off, we tried putting an old front spindle onto the end of the crank with a bolt behind it and then winding the flywheel off using the internal thread of the flywheel.

It stripped the thread, apparently they are renowned for being a pain and need a lot of heat plus a 3 leg puller and shocking with a rubber mallet. Also the heat/shocks will cause the magnets to break and fall from the flywheel so you'll need to replace them (you don't want the bits in the motor so clean it well)

I am still waiting to borrow the gas and puller from a mate to do the job

[Oobyscoot]

I got it running now, its only got to get me through this winter then I will (or should) be done with it as I want to build myself a custom/rat type thing.

That said, I could just wait until the GS evolves into a rat, as it seems to be heading that way.
:rolleyes:

[johnr]

I have a dead gs500 in the garage for the same reason. shortly after the clunks started it just spun the starter without engaging.

The flywheel is a real pain to get off, we tried putting an old front spindle onto the end of the crank with a bolt behind it and then winding the flywheel off using the internal thread of the flywheel.

It stripped the thread, apparently they are renowned for being a pain and need a lot of heat plus a 3 leg puller and shocking with a rubber mallet. Also the heat/shocks will cause the magnets to break and fall from the flywheel so you'll need to replace them (you don't want the bits in the motor so clean it well)

I am still waiting to borrow the gas and puller from a mate to do the job


i always thought the slide hammer was best for these,

[wurzel]

Apparently these motors are renowned for the flywheels sticking like s*** to a shovel and needing big heat

If you had seen the shocks and effort we were putting in before the thread went you'd know a slide hammer was never going to work