Anyone have any experience with an aftermarket starter like those sold on ebay? Caltric for example. $160 for a Chrome starter compared to almost 350 for original from dealer...

 

I was wondering the same thing. I need a new starter on my '07 Deluxe. **** the bed on me in Martha's Vineyard. I was able to jump going down a hill. And it fired off one last time on the Ferry! Rode all the way home on that start. Anybody replace their starter on a newer bike yet? I've seen some as low as $100 similar to stock and some as high as $500 which are higher torque.

 

starters are really easy and cheap to fix- unless the windings have burned up ( which is usually caused by the owner holding down the button even though something is preventing the starter from turning...this is chacterized by a whining sound...then smoke)

other than that it is brush replacement ( easy), commutator cleaning with a hacksaw blade (easy) and bearing replacement ( also easy) & starter clutch replacement

and/or rebuilding the solenoid switch which is similar to the one in a chevy or nissan.


i have thousands of starts on some of my bikes and the starters are easier to fix than my knee.


I would suggest fixing over trying an ebay crap shoot.


most problems are low battery, bad cables or connections.

...and welcome to the forums

mike

 

and my experience with chrome starters is they aren't worth a crap!! any of them!! seems the chrome helps hold heat in, (I guess) and they crap out, give troubles, ect. put on maybe 4 or five, and had to replace every one of them. tried the spike, one, what a pile of junk, fix your old one or, buy from harley, in my opinion, they really don't go bad though as MK said, all the starters I changed were cuz they wanted the chrome one

 

Only thing I'm worried about with buying one from Harley is that my original wasn't right from the beginning. It always hit top dead center and died out then would pass TDC and start cranking better. But it ate up batteries. I see some of the aftermarket ones are geared better like the starter I put in my old Muscle Car. I thought that would work better for my situation. Mine whined and made a hell of a screech like sound on its last starts. Everybody went WHOA when they heard it. LOL

 

Phil, when you turn off a motor ( any vehicle) you turn off the ignition - the spark.

The motor continues to turn until the pressure in the cylinders cannot be overcome by the rotational forces stored.


So when you go to start it again- the piston is just before TDC on the compression stroke- to start requires the maximum force possible.

The trick on a harley is to flick the starter switch- this will either push the piston past TDC...or the motor will rebound and turn backwards.

when you next press the starter button, the motor can gain some momentum before the next compression stroke, and hopefully fire up.

I got my first harley with an electric starter in 1990- this is how I've always done it. When you have older bikes and have to kick them, you learn alot about the difference between rotating the motor on the exhaust stroke and pushing against compression

Mike

 

Exactly mkguitar! I remembered about growing up around bikes and engines that needed to be positioned on the exhaust stoke to start easier but man, I've heard other bikes that seem to never get that compression stroke problem. They just hit the starter button and it cranks freely from the get go. How can that be? I just want to be able to get on my bike and hit the starter button without any worries or issues. Ya know? I have an old muscle car with around 12:1 compression and it spins easily with a newer style high torque starter. It's a great feeling not having to worry about old technology screwing things up.

I don't know, maybe I'm asking too much??? But I really don't think so.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

compression releases!!

 

Sounds like Harleycharlie has had some bad experiences but I have had an Ultima thunderfire starter starting my 113" for the past 32K with no problems whatsoever. I went with the 2.4k version for the bigger motors and I also run an Odyssey battery that has tons of CCA. I am of the opinion that weak/ unmaintained batteries kill starters.

 

that Odyssey is one cool battery (if you get excited about such things!!) Glad your starter is working well for you. putting a starter in a softail is a PIA. ya, I've just given up on the chrome starter thing, If people want them, I will still put them in, and give them a 5/50 warranty, 5 minutes/50 feet, after that its back to being on their dime. and I tell everybody about keeping up their batteries and changing them every 3 years. I have the Odyssey batteries in my bikes, great cranking power!!