Honda GL1000 starter fiasco

For a couple of years my 75 Honda Goldwing GL1000 has had a tired starter. The starter would work, sort of, mostly.  If I rode somewhere and parked it for an hour it would be fine, but if I needed to start it up in 5 minutes after I had just ridden it,,,,sometimes it would start and sometimes it wouldn't.

In the meantime I had been wanting a motorcycle lift table to make working on the bike easier.  I don't like to hear all the snap, crackle, and pop in my joints every time I get down on the garage floor to work on the naked Goldwing.  I had been saving my money and for two years in a row I had carefully inspected the Titan tables at the Motorcycle Expo in Indianapolis.  I finally took the plunge, pulled out the plastic and the black Titan beauty was mine.  I was so excited to use the lift that I pulled the bike up on the lift, cranked the lift up as high as it would go and removed the starter.  I was on my way to a starter rebuild.

I kept telling my wife, "This lift is awesome."  The only problem was, in my excitement about the lift I had forgotten to read the instructions about how you're supposed to have the bike on the side stand when you remove the starter. If you don't ...warning... warning....warning...you will have to pull the engine to get the starter back in.  It's too bad I didn't heed the warning.

So now I had a problem that loomed enormous in my mind.  I would have to pull the engine, or at least that's what the instructions said.  I've pulled the engine before, twice, but I work slow so it would take a month of Sundays to get the bike back on the road.  So I was just sick, and embarrassed.

I was going to rebuild the starter myself but someone who (unlike me) actually knows a lot about motorcycles recommended that I take the starter to a place that rebuilds starters.  So I got a recommendation on a place to go in Indy.  Unfortunately, they damaged my starter shaft when they rebuilt it and they didn't tell me, and never did 'fess' up.

I took the starter home from the rebuild place and tried several times to get the starter shaft in the sprocket but it wouldn't go.  I thought, yep, sure enough, you must have to pull the engine to get the starter back in place.  

But then I started looking at the shaft and realized it was damaged.  I took the sprocket off of the chain and tried to put the starter shaft into the sprocket.  It wouldn't go together.  It wasn't even close.  It was like the two had never known each other.  So I took the starter apart and to my surprise it hadn't even been packed with grease.  Now I was really upset.

It's a good thing I belong to NGW Club because one of the guys came to my rescue with a reasonably priced shaft and I swapped them out.  This new/used shaft fit in the sprocket perfectly.  The starter also slipped right in to where it was supposed to go.  Now that I have the bike back on the road the starter works great.

So, what was the deal with the instructions saying that you had to have the bike on the side stand when you pull the starter or you'd have to pull the engine to get the starter back in?  And what if you did pull the engine, what was the procedure for putting the starter back in with the engine pulled?  I don't know.  Maybe God was just merciful to me once again.  I'm just glad I didn't have to pull the engine.

So, if there's a next time, maybe I'll rebuild the starter myself.  For sure I will have the bike on the side stand, just in case.