Starter Clutch

[pangpang89]

Hey guys me again!
After my last problem with the hydraulic lock, the bike doesn't start properly anymore. When I hit the starter button, I can hear a whirring noise which I suspect to be the starter clutch. I've gone around this problem by push starting the bike which is starting to get ridiculous and now that its holidays I want to fix it.

The bike is a 1988 Honda VT250F, not the VTR. Whats odd is that when the bike is warm, it will start up fine. My battery may not be holding a charge properly but would this cause the clutch to not engage? I doubt that it is a battery issue because it has been ridden daily with a 6 month old battery. I have also charged it with a trickle charger and tested it with a multimeter in the past and everything was fine.

From my service manual, I think I have identified what type of clutch system my bike uses. I've attached pics from my service manual to compare with this link here: Starter Clutch

If you can think of anything else that I could test out before I take the clutch out could you please let me know. I've been reading up on how to get to the starter and will be following a few guides online. Also advice on how to get to the clutch and things to note while I am in there will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
-Andy

[lo1ux]

Its a pretty simple fix...well on my bike anyway. It could even be the pinion that is stripped from the failure of your spragg clutch. If the starter motor pinion is stripped I would still replace the spragg clutch as this would have caused the starter damage.

[GD Engineering (Gavin)]

Definately look at the starter clutch first

[pangpang89]

Would heat be a factor in the starter clutch working? I just went out to do some errands and the bike started everytime when it was warm. I did have to push it when I started it in my garage though.

[GD Engineering (Gavin)]

Yeh, they are more likely to turn over hot..... eventually they just buzz hot and cold.

[pangpang89]

Well I worked on the bike today and it now turns over every time The starter clutch bolt was very hard to remove, I tried putting it in 6th gear and holding on rear brake as suggested on another forum but that didn't work. Ended up taking it to a workshop and got the bolt removed there with a rattle gun (made life soooo much easier). Took apart the starter clutch and realized that all the springs had failed. The pins were not pushing the rollers at all so I bought a new starter from Maddington motorcycle wreckers and chucked it into the bike.

Put everything back together, but now the engine would turn over but not start. Friend suggest checking for a spark, which we couldn't find and went back to the wreckers. Turns out Mark forgot that the indents on the outside of the clutch(83) was not similar to the indents on my 88 which lead to a ignition problem. So we went back to the workshop, took the bike apart again (for the 3rd time), took apart the starter clutches and replaced the springs. All I needed to repair my clutch was to replace the 3 springs and pins inside.

Now the bike is back to the way I bought it! It was a great learning experience and a very easy repair to do. Thanks for the replies lo1ux and Gavin. It helped me a lot.