Looking for some input and help guys. I took my bike in to have the starter replaced and when they opened up the primary they noticed that 3/4 of the teeth were broken off the ring gear and that the starter jack shaft was broken in half. Theres no doubt that everything is as they said it was since i was allowed to look and there was a ton of metal shavings in the primary. So i guess my question is what could of caused that? My bike is a 2000 night train with a se 204 cam, se ignition, intake, exhaust and the previous owner said he had the head shaved. Im hoping to prevent this in the future. Thanks in advance!

 

You can hear the clink clank grind that causes that kind of damage. On '07 and later bikes it was common on hot restarts. On older bikes its often because of a weak starter or battery. If you've been hearing it for awhile, that's what happened.

On my '00 (before I replaced the battery,) I found that hitting the starter immediately after turning on the ignition ( not waiting for the the red light to go off,) seemed to let it start on the first rotation, a practice that I continue to this day. No clank that way. (Still have my original 14 year old starter too.)

 

You might check the cold crank compression when you get it back together. Since the previous guy had the heads shaved plus the cams, it could be up there. If it is over 195ish, you may want to look at compression releases. Manual compression releases are inexpensive compared to what you have going on now.

 

How difficult are they to install?? I'm not familiar with those at all?

 

Also look at S&S easy start cams. You'll never have a compression problem again when hot starts are in play.

 

It's not a DIY project. Essentially a hole is drilled in the heads (removed from the bike) next to the spark plug and a compression release is installed. It takes a jig, the hole is stepped and threaded. The manual ones, you push in prior to start, they allow some bypass of compression and when the bike fires, they close. The easy start cams are another option that don't require any machining and probably a more expensive option, but can be a DIY project. I am a little fuzzy on those, but they have a component that holds one of the valves open briefly (exhaust I think) which relieves some of the compression during the start sequence. You need to check the CCP on your bike first. If it's not high, either one of these would be a waste of money.

 

I got to tell you when I had stock 96 in the summer on hot starts my motor would struggle like a horse struggling to breath. With my 106 and these cams the starts are just so easy every single time. No stress on starter and no excessive power pulls from the battery

 

This is a common problem. I have a bucket full of damaged Ring and Pinion Gears removed from other bikes. Shaving the heads on your 88 would not increase the compression high enough to justify the expense of installing compression releases and there is a cheaper alternative. Search JP Cycles for "Easy Starter Kit". This kit replaces the stock ring and pinion with a 66 tooth ring gear and a 9 tooth pinion gear. The components are much stronger than stock and the different gear ratio places less stress on the starter and less power draw from the battery.

 

thanks for all the replies...i think i'm gonna start with the easy start kit from j&p to begin with since the ring gear, starter and jackshaft all need to be replaced anyway. Once its back together I'll do the compression test just to be sure and go from there. Thanks again for everyones help!

 

My 97 heritage did this twice. It all started when my starter solenoid went bad and I was in a hurry so I bought a aftermarket starter and installed it. Broke the starter jack first, replaced that, broke it again a few months later this time It took the ring gear too. So I took the bike to a local indy bike dealer, he replace the broken parts as well as a bigger ring gear to help it roll over easier,, guess what?... it all grenade again. Rebuilt the stock starter, put it back on the bike, not a problem going on 5 years now.