On my 75 Ironhead sometimes the starter gets stuck or jammed. It locks the whole engine up and you can not even kick it over with the kick starter lever either. Only way I get it to UN-stick itself is to loosen the two bolts that hold the starter housing to the engine about a 1/4 inch then pry the housing out from the engine and tap the area with a hammer. The starter will free up then I tighten the bolts back up and it will then let the engine turn over again. It has a new ring gear on the clutch basket but the starter housing and starter were from a used engine off a 72 Ironhead. It does have the correct 62 tooth ring gear on the basket. It only sticks every so often and not all the time. What else besides the ring gear could cause this locking up of the starter gear into the ring gear?

 

Sounds like the gear that engages with the ring gear could be worn out. Or the Bendix clutch in the Bendix gear is not working and jamming things up. Most likely the first option though.

Or if you had a new ring gear put on the old clutch basket, it could have been welded on not running true so it jams in some positions not others.
What you need to do is pull the starter and the primary cover and do a careful inspection of the whole starter drive system.

 

Well I am the one who welded the ring gear on and I know it is perfect and straight. I am going to pull the starter housing and rebuild the Bendix and gear in there as it has to be where the problem is at. I know the rest of the welded ring gear and bearing in the primary cover is new and installed correctly so it just has to be in the starter mechanism. Installed a new selenoid kit also so it has the be in the rest of the housing. Maybe the bearing in there or a worn Bendix gear. Thanks.

 

In case you want to bench test the solenoid with the kit installed ...

 

It tells me the video is private and I can not view it unless you change that at Youtube.

 

Sorry about that. Fixed it.

Had some troubles with Youtube account after i mistakenly clicked on Google+. Have to go thru them all and ensure that they are public.

 

Well I found out the problem was a bad starter clutch. It would spin free then grab all at once while spinning at full speed banging the ring gear like hitting it with a hammer. Look at the photos of the destroyed ring gear from this happening. It is one for the scrap man for sure. Now I need to find another (OEM 33162-67) 62 tooth ring gear to fix it again.

 

Great video, very informative

 

Well I finally got the correct way to put this ring gear on after talking to three different Harley Techs today. If you look at the new ring the inner circle of it has a slight bevel. Most guys are perceiving this bevel as one that lets you get more welding metal into your welds. This is the wrong way to put it on the basket. You must have the beveled teeth side towards the starter gear so it meshes up smoothly. There is no inner circle bevel on this side. If your welder is set correctly you do not need any bevels to weld into. So the absolute correct way to put these ring gears on is to have the Beveled teeth pointing towards the starter gear. If you were to put it on with the flat teeth side to the starter the two would butt heads banging the hell out of the ring gear teeth trying to mesh up to the bendix gear therefore this is why the one I took off my basket looks like it went through a grinder. The flat teeth were toward the starter which is the wrong way. I Hope this information helps out a few people in the future that need to do this repair.