Need to pick y'all collective brains in here for what to start looking for. I have not taken anything off yet, because I got home last night from Laughlin River Run and parked her.

Symtom: I start the bike and the starter stays engaged with pinion gear spinning with clutch ring gear and does not retract. When I press the kill button and turn ignition switch off, starter continues to spin engine over. So, I just turn ignition switch on to keep engine running. First time this happened the pinion retracted. Second time, engine is running, but starter still spinning. I thought I would have to take negative off the battery to get it to stop. I tapped on top of the inner primary and starter on the outside with a wrench and the pinion retracted.

This happened twice now. I replace the clutch gear on this starter a year ago. I also have a push button on solenoid side. I don't know what's going on inside primary yet.

Any thoughts guys? Need more info?

 

I'd start with the starter button itself. That's what it turned out to be when it happened to my Sportster many years ago.

 

I will certainly look at it. I believe both times it happened after I used the selonoid push button, because starter button did not initiate the selonoid. These old bike ('89) wiring are tired.

Didn't even consider the starter button. I could have just pulled the small green wire from starter button to selonoid. Thanks for suggeation to look at button though.

 

I was recently helping a guy put his bike back together and it had 2 ground cables on it.
One went to the frame and the other went to one of the starter mounting bolts.
He had deformed the battery posts so I tried hooking up only one of the grounds (the one to the frame) bike started fine but then the starter wouldn't disengage. Had to pull a battery bolt to get it to stop.
On the second try finally got both ground wires to mount to the battery.
Everything worked fine after that.
Damned if I know why he needed two ground wires but he did.

If you can't find anything else you might consider adding an additional ground wire.

 

I know the neg cable is grounded at starter through one of the mounting bolt. There is also a mesh cable that grounds to frame. Sometimes guys put another ground cable from neg post to frame to enable better grounding with battery.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will recheck grounding points.
Always a learning experience.

 

Could be switch wire in solenoid is being hit by contact disc.

 

Update to close this one out, so as it might help provide a start for somebody in the future.

I did most of the suggestions above and a little more. These intermittent electrical or starter issue can be a bear to diagnose, unless you just want to start swapping parts until it's fixed.

-opened up and cleaned out starter button with electrical contact cleaner
-opened up solenoid and replaced one of the contact that was slightly worn
-swapped out the solenoid plunger spring for a stronger one. Lubed the spring and plunger rod slightly.
-Cleaned trigger wire connection. Tested for 12V when stater button was pressed in, and 0 when button released.
-relay click and was good and strong.
-Check grounding points on starter and battery

Starter is working fine with multiple tests. Time will tell when another run on happens. If it does, then we'll get back at it.

 

Thank's for the update.
Mine has done this, only once & had to let it run the battery down.
Luckily it didn't start. Hasn't stuck, again.

Ride Safe,
Harold

 

Harold, I hope that was a fluke and you don't have it happen again. If it does, you can and should try to get to the battery and remove the negative. The potential harm for the starter to keep running, other than killing the battery, is messing up the pinion gear or clutch ring gear.

Did this happen after a bike washing?
Did you replace any components after this incident?

Just trying to get more information for troubleshooting next time.

 

When I have my Shovelhead, when I was being too cheap to replace the solenoid....it was doing that. I'd take it apart, flip the washer over to the clean side..and it'd work fine again. Them cheap made in china solenoids now tend to arc weld up that washer a lot which makes it "stick". Got the point where I kept a crescent wrench and/or my diving knife in one of the saddle bags right there so I'd grab it swing down and whack the starter a few times when it stuck.

Finally I'd cave and get a new solenoid..problem would go away...for a while. But them cheap solenoids now-a-days never last...problem creeps back.