m_stock10506
Well-known member
The starter of my R100 has been dragging for a long while. Cold start was becoming a challenge. So, I opted to buy a replacement and just remove the original Bosch starter. Yes, I could have cleaned it up and rehab'd it, but I chose not to.
I purchased an Enduralast starter from Tom Cutter, an STR1.
I'm posting this just to point out a few "issues" that might pop up if you try to do this. It's a straughtforward job.
When I researched it, I figured it would be: Remove gas tank, disconnect battery, remove front cover, remove top cover, remove air filter, remove starter. It got a little more complicated.
Once I removed all the above pieces, I looked at the old starter and realized that the air box was blocking access to the nuts holding the starter at the rear. So the air box also has to be removed, which means removing the air tubes and removing the connections to the crankcase air recirculation hose.
The right side nylok nut came loose with a thinwall 13 mm socket, but the left side nylok nut is blocked by a lip at the top rear(left) of the gear box, In order to get a socket on to the nut I had to file away about 1/4 inch of aluminum from the casing, A dremel would have made the job quicker but probably messy, At the front, on my '84 R100, the front bracket holding the back of the starter is held on by a 5 mm cap screw, not the big bolt pictured in Brook's video. The cap screw was also holding down a cluster of ground wires. So, after I removed the screw and removed the starter, I had to return the cap screw to it's position to hold down those ground wires again. The old starter wiggled out, electrical wires moved over to the new starter. The Enduralast starter is lighter and more compact than the Bosch. No bracket needed, and the bolts get turned around and thread into the nose of the new starter. I had no problem with fit. No mallet was needed to coax the starter into position, like the Boxer 2 Valve video. The crankcase breather hose connection to the air box is a huge pain. I spent nearly an hour trying to get that back into the hole. I eventually used a small half round file to slightly enlarge the opening.
Once the airbox was back in position and reconnected, everything else went back into place pretty easily. All told, about 5 hours. I can remove and replace the starter on my Oilhead in about 30 minutes.
After, I went for gas, since I ran the tank down for this job. The new starter spins the motor effortlessly.
One last note about Boxer2Valve and Brook's Airhead videos. The "starter" videos that I saw from them were both done on bikes that were in the process of getting rebuilt. Major components were not yet mounted to these bikes. I love their sites and find them very helpful, but you have to be careful when you are doing a maintenance job on a bike with everything in place. You are likely to run into problems that these rebuild videos don't address.
I purchased an Enduralast starter from Tom Cutter, an STR1.
I'm posting this just to point out a few "issues" that might pop up if you try to do this. It's a straughtforward job.
When I researched it, I figured it would be: Remove gas tank, disconnect battery, remove front cover, remove top cover, remove air filter, remove starter. It got a little more complicated.
Once I removed all the above pieces, I looked at the old starter and realized that the air box was blocking access to the nuts holding the starter at the rear. So the air box also has to be removed, which means removing the air tubes and removing the connections to the crankcase air recirculation hose.
The right side nylok nut came loose with a thinwall 13 mm socket, but the left side nylok nut is blocked by a lip at the top rear(left) of the gear box, In order to get a socket on to the nut I had to file away about 1/4 inch of aluminum from the casing, A dremel would have made the job quicker but probably messy, At the front, on my '84 R100, the front bracket holding the back of the starter is held on by a 5 mm cap screw, not the big bolt pictured in Brook's video. The cap screw was also holding down a cluster of ground wires. So, after I removed the screw and removed the starter, I had to return the cap screw to it's position to hold down those ground wires again. The old starter wiggled out, electrical wires moved over to the new starter. The Enduralast starter is lighter and more compact than the Bosch. No bracket needed, and the bolts get turned around and thread into the nose of the new starter. I had no problem with fit. No mallet was needed to coax the starter into position, like the Boxer 2 Valve video. The crankcase breather hose connection to the air box is a huge pain. I spent nearly an hour trying to get that back into the hole. I eventually used a small half round file to slightly enlarge the opening.
Once the airbox was back in position and reconnected, everything else went back into place pretty easily. All told, about 5 hours. I can remove and replace the starter on my Oilhead in about 30 minutes.
After, I went for gas, since I ran the tank down for this job. The new starter spins the motor effortlessly.
One last note about Boxer2Valve and Brook's Airhead videos. The "starter" videos that I saw from them were both done on bikes that were in the process of getting rebuilt. Major components were not yet mounted to these bikes. I love their sites and find them very helpful, but you have to be careful when you are doing a maintenance job on a bike with everything in place. You are likely to run into problems that these rebuild videos don't address.
