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Time to upgrade?

bethewall

Member
After reading lots and lots of posts, and experiencing a dragging starter on my 86 Electraglide, I dove right in and changed the cables and the battery. The weather was awesome outside, I got in a hurry and got one of the nuts too tight on the solenoid, cracking the housing. Of course now all the solenoid will do is click and smoke, so it has gotta come out. :(

I've heard the Accel solenoids are good, looks like I might be able to pick one up locally, but I want to do this right, and ONCE, so if there is something better out there than Accel let me know please.

And as long as I'm this far into it, should I pull out the starter? I have a great starter/alternater guy here in town that can probably do the brushes/bearings in the starter, he has rebuilt lots of car starters for me with great success. Does my primary cover have to come off to get this year model of starter off? The manual doesn't describe removing the primary cover, but does talk about keeping the starter "in one piece" as it is removed from its spot. Don't want to create more work for myself, but figured that freshening up the starter, maybe even replacing the starter relay, might be a good idea, especially if the starter on my bike isn't too tough to remove and replace.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and thoughts.
 
Not a biggy to remove the starter. But yes, you do need to open up the Primary to remove the long screw from the jack shaft. This screw goes all the way to and screws in the end of the splined starter shaft.

Disconnect the negative cable from the battery, open up the primary and remove the screw from the jack shaft, remove the cable and wire from the starter, move anything else in the way of the starter coming straight off the back of the inner primary, take out the starter mounting bolts and remove the starter. The coupler may come off with the starter, or may remain on the jack shaft. If it comes off with the starter, mark it to ensure you know which end goes on the starter shaft. That will save a potential "OH NO".

You may be at a break-even with respect to getting the starter rebuilt and replacing the solenoid as just buying and installing a complete unit. You will have to price those options.

Relay? Your call. Easy to do at any time.

TQ
 
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I have 1 85 FLHTC and took the starter off and took it to JEBCO STARTERS in Riverside NJ. He also works through Ebay (you send it in and he returns it)and did a nice job. I didn't have to remove the Primary to get mine off.
 
Ah, the saga continues.....local starter/alternator guy took the starter apart, said it looks "new" -- brushes great, everything checked out okay. Replaced the solenoid with a new one, a good one....realized the cheap WalMart battery (previous owner) was pushing about 80CCA, so I know that has to go. However, even when I jump-started with a car battery, the bike cranks over slowly, if at all. Really drags...but eventually starts, voltmeter shows 10.5-11 volts at about 1000-1100 rpm. So now I am thinking the primary case need to some off so I can check the starter shaft, starter clutch and replace the needle bearings at each end of the starter shaft as well while I am at it. ANY possibility I am missing something? I have read the posts on solenoid check, starter relay check.....all seem okay.
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Sounds to me like a battery cable resistance problem if it still starts bad with a jump (which can fry your electronics)

Try using a battery jumper cable from the POS of the battery to the big lug on the starter and see if it cranks better, then try the same with the NEG of the battery to a good ground and see how it cranks then.
 
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