ROLLING EARTHQUAKE: 11-01-14Honda starter rebuild

11-01-14 1983 HONDA GOLDWING STARTER REBUILD DAY

I finally have all the parts and supplies, cleaning fluids and weather to pull the starter out of the Honda cycle. Woke up ( Ocean Springs, Ms.) to 45F, a bit chilly to start this job in the A.M. So I'm waiting for Sol to warm it up a bit.

Last week the starter decided it was gonna take 10+ attempts to start the engine. After some analyzing I decided ( guessed) the starter brushes need maintenance.

When I first checked the Goldwing Maintenance Manual it said the engine had to be removed to remove the starter. I checked on the Honda Goldwing internet forum and found out that was NOT necessary! There were some Youtube videos available showing the whole procedure from removal to repair to reinstall. It's supposed to take 2 hours so I'll guess, for me, about 4 hours. I've got the bike in back and up on the cement picnic table area. Good work area in case I drop any parts. I didn't want to be searching thru the leaves for anything.

The project finally started about 1100hrs when the temps got tolerable ( 60F). I tried to guess what tools I'd need and laid them out. Now I know some of you are laughing and I don't blame ya. I kinda use the Billy Bob method! Let's see how that plan works out.

There's only 7 screws/bolts/nuts to remove. How tough can that be?? Let me tell ya, I didn't realize I needed to be a contortionist to get to them! Sideways, upside down and inside out is the best way to explain it. I don't think there was even one of those bolts that were easy to get to but I persisted. I had to take off the left running board

( 3 nuts). The shifter arm. ( 1 bolt). Now I was down to 1 nut & 2 bolts to pull the starter. A little wiggling and prying and YAHOO, the starter was out !!

Over to the picnic table to disassemble it and cleanup the innards. Remove the brush assembly and clean up all the carbon dust with our air compressor. Sprayed a lot of electrical cleaner/ degreaser and blow it all out til it was dry. Regrease the bearings and geared drive and put in the new brush assembly, finally, put it all back together. The whole process so far was 1 ½ hrs.

I wasn't aware of time as all of this was going on. Ms. Heather made up some breakfast sandwiches and it was a good time to take a break. Yummy! Recharged !!

Going on 1400. Let's get this put back together! Bolted up the starter, tested it and put all the running board/shifter stuff back on !!

Another ½ hour. Now we're back in business !! Seems to work like new!

Now comes the Billy Bob part! Whoa !! Where'd all those tools come from?? Is someone sneaking tools out here?? No way I coulda used all those tools !! The cleanup took an hour. Gotta wipe 'em all off and put them away properly ya know!!