TOPIC:

Looks like a need a new starter motor. Have cleaned it up and checked brushes and tested with a fully charged battery and nothing happens except a spark. I can easily turn it with my fingers so I figure I have toasted it somehow. Anyways I found this starter on the internet and was wondering if anybody had information on them in terms of fitting into a 1983 Z1300 A5?

Starter Motor on Ebay

NOTE: I did start a new thread under projects (and still intend to) however after 40mins typing I managed to lose everything I had done. So I picked my jaw up from the ground and apologized to the neighbor for cursing so loud.

The guts out of an old CB 750 / 4 Honda starter fit into the Z13 housing, but the new one would be a better option, I just mentioned the Honda one cause I had a spare one in my shed and pulled it apart and checked the internals while I had mine apart doing the brushes, look pretty well the same to my blind eyes, cheers Pete.

Hi - that looks a good price: I bought a reconditioned unit from a stripped engine for my A1 and it was way more expensive

Re fitting: on my 1979 A1 it was fairly simple (even for a mechanical numpty like me): you'll probably get a better description from one of the more savvy members, not sure if it helps, but fitting went something like:
Disconnect Battery (I did anyway), remove starter motor cover, remove left hand engine case off, slide starter clutch reduction gear off, disconnect power lead to starter motor.
Then it was a simple case of pulling the old motor out of its housing, and sliding the new unit home and putting the starter clutch reduction gear back in place. On my A1 I had to reconnect the power lead to the new starter motor just prior to slipping it fully home - simply no room to loctite and retro fit the nut when the motor was fully in place.
Cheers

One thing you need to be watchful with those ND starters is that some for the smaller multi cylinder engines only have 2 magnets in the case and they will work but wont have enough torque to start the bigger engines.

Yaegunp wrote: Looks like a need a new starter motor. Have cleaned it up and checked brushes and tested with a fully charged battery and nothing happens except a spark. I can easily turn it with my fingers so I figure I have toasted it somehow. Anyways I found this starter on the internet and was wondering if anybody had information on them in terms of fitting into a 1983 Z1300 A5?

Starter Motor on Ebay

NOTE: I did start a new thread under projects (and still intend to) however after 40mins typing I managed to lose everything I had done. So I picked my jaw up from the ground and apologized to the neighbor for cursing so loud.

"I" wouldn't give up on the starter motor. If the windings are still intact on the slip rings then it should be repairable. The ground through the motor is most likely the issue here I would be "following" the circuit through the motor. One brush will attach to the positive terminal and the other (the negative brush) to the brush plate. The brush plate grounds out through the housing which grounds out through the engine which has a ground strap at the crankcase half joint just left of the drive shaft.

You can test the motor with a set of jumper cables and a battery. Negative ground to the housing and tap the positive jumper on the starter terminal. If nothing happens focus on the ground issue in the motor. If the motor flips over then you need to focus on the ground or the feed circuit to the motor. I can't count how many starter motors I've seen chucked out because people can't understand the circuit through a simple motor. Volkswagen starter motors were notorious for this issue. The other culprit to starter motors going south is when people decide to put a pretty paint job on the ugly motor and they paint the hell out of it. Then the paint insulates all the contact points in the ground circuit through the motor, which brings to mind - Did you paint the engine and then install the starter motor?

Thanks Kawboy. I pulled the Starter motor and cleaned it prior to starting this thread. Everything looks Ok, just a build up of carbon in there so I gave everything a good clean. I have tested it on the bench and the only thing I did differently was to connect via alligator clip to the starter terminal, then tap on the housing with the negative.

Naah I haven't painted the hell out of it although it could do with a bit of work in that area. The only thing that was a bit odd was one of the shim washers was missing (ie. two washers instead of three). I haven't been able to locate the ground strap yet, having the sidecar on there makes it very difficult and impossible for me. Currently, when I am NOT troubleshooting the starter motor I am building a set of ramps that will enable me to work under the bike. There is no other real safe way to do it. I finished the right hand side ramp today and will start on the left hand side ramp tomorrow.

One thing I should mention is the battery is located in the sidecar along with a second fuel tank that I can use just by flicking a switch. So there is plumbing and wiring from one side to the other. I will start the new project thread again tonight to give detailed info of the sidecar setup. I'll try not to lose it all into the matrix this time.