Went riding today, stopped for a moment, went to start it and it just made a whirring noise. New to bikes, been a long time since I worked on cars but it sounds like it isn't engaging. Push started it got it home started tearing it down and am realizing that it isn't like a car, for one, and two I don't know I'll know what's broke if it bit me on the nose.

So here's where I'm at, got the wires off the solenoid, two bolts off, pulled it off and a long spring is sticking out. On the bike end, there's a rod sticking out of some kind of gasket. I didn't want to yank out that gasket without knowing what I was getting into. I can tell you that can spin freely and move all around, don't know if that's normal or not.

I kinda of expected it to be like a car. Two or three bolts and you're done, lol. I have pictures if needed.

 

Not that anyone is paying attention, but I apparently took aprt the solenoid, not the starter.

 

Tried jumping the solenoid with a screwdriver, nothing happened. Then, just fiddling around, I pushed in the rod in the solenoid and the starter whirred without engaging again.

 

Replace the starter. May get away with just replacing the starter clutch inside the starter, but that's not a guarantee. If you do, I recommend the AllBalls starter clutch, you can find them on Amazon for around $40-$45

If you search around this site, there are a number of threads that touch on the same issues