The early XVs both 750s and 920s are well known for their terrible stater clutches. It is really a dumb design that lasted two years. The idea is to spin a gear up and smash it into the flywheel gear to turn the motor over. There's not meshing, just smash the gears together. In turn it makes hellva racket, and eventually wears the gears completely out. Basically sheering them.
My start left us 75 miles from home one day and I was able to bump start the bike. I bought a new battery and converted from a two brush starter to a four brush. The four brush spins much faster, and much more torque so the whole process works better. Notice I didn't say good.
What wears out is the gear bolted on the back of the flywheel, and the number two idle gear. That is the one that smashes into the flywheel.
Well I managed to find # 1 & 2 NOS idle gears on FleaBay and replaced them today. I also replaced the two clips; one at the starter gear (bendix) the other on the starter clutch. It was a quick change out; 45 to 60 minutes.
Once I removed the case cover I was happy to find out that the gear on the back of the flywheel appears to be BRAND new! Thank you PO! That was about $400 for a flywheel assembly.
With the new gears and clips, the beast fires right up! She's still loud but spins much, much better, and now the motor fires right up!
Starter gear on the upper left, starter clutch assembly on the right. Far gear and middle gear replaced. Near gear in good shape.
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New looking flywheel gears
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Old fired gear.
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