Funny squawk noise when hitting starter

My recently rebuilt 750E makes a funny squawk noise when first engaging the starter in the morning. It almost sounds like a bearing is dry. After starting the bike and running a while the noise goes away until the next cold start.

During the rebuild I replaced the rollers/springs in the starter clutch. The bike only has 11k miles on it in the first place and I didn't see any abnormal wear in the clutch.

My thinking is to bust down the starter motor and make sure everything inside looks as it should. I'm wondering about the starter clutch though. I've heard starter clutches before that wouldn't engage, where the starter motor just spins and the engine doesn't. But is there a condition on these bikes where the clutch could emit this squawk/groan noise due to some level of slippage? Hope not but I'm not very experienced with this engine so hoping someone can share their experiences.

650Ed described a bad starter clutch as making an "oogah horn" sound and that pretty much is the sound I hear at times on a cold start and just after the motor fires and starts. 1980 750 E1. Its quite loud. A squawk would also be a good description. I had assumed it's the starter clutch but as its been doing this for the past 12 years I don't worry to much. I intend to run it this way as long as possible before I do anything. I might take out the starter motor and give it a service this spring just in case. Certainly a lot easier than tackling the starter clutch.

My bike has over 75,000 km on it. Hard to think you could have starter clutch issue at 11,000 miles and on a rebuilt motor.

It's embarrassing though. :dry:
Steve

swest wrote: It's embarrassing though. :dry:
Steve

Not to me. I don't pay any mind who's watching or listening.

Mine does the exact same thing. Worse when cold.

Humm, sounds like this noise is somewhat common. That makes me less concern.

Do you guys think it's worth the effort to bust the starter motor down to make sure nothing is going on inside? I'd just do it but I'm concern about damaging the fasteners since I've had issues before trying to take apart a starter.

Mine does it too, but it happens only once in while and when its cold weather, so I think it is related to starter being very cold.

I know the sound you're talking about. It happened on my Honda 350 until I got a new starter motor. I had the cover off and watched it. When it made that noise, it was going backwards after I let off on the switch. Seems common with chain driven starters.
Steve

Pretty sure your problem (if you even have one) is in the starter and not the starter clutch ...... St clutch sounded more like it was slipping and clanging rattling and like I've heard before a bunch of rocks...... Before I tore into the st clutch I put on my 79 parts bike starter to be sure and it "kind" of makes a mopar sound when turning over ..... different than that but I don't know how else to describe it other wise .... I like the sound and am keeping it on.

JR wrote: ..................................... I might take out the starter motor and give it a service this spring .............

When the snow melted and things warmed up in mid March I pulled the starter motor and opened it up. Blew out the carbon dust (not to much dust) with compressed air and cleaned up the commutator with Deoxit. Carbon brushes measured within spec so i just reassembled and put the motor back.
Works better than ever and no more squawking much to my delight. I didnt see any reason why it has squawked since i got it but wondered if perhaps previous owner had missaligned the little planetary gears when reassembling. For sure someone was in there before me as the brushes did not look like ones with almost 80,000 km on them.

Overall an easy job.

JR,
I'm interested to know, since apparently this is a common problem?...issue! reported here.

What do you think you did that solved the squawk noise? Did you grease anything like a bushing or you thinking it was purely brush dust?

wrenchmonkey

I'm sure the Deoxit to clean up the commutator helped with better electrical conductivity but no extra grease was used in the reassembly, just extra care to get the 2 gear wheels lined up correctly. There was actually a lot less dust than i had expected.

A mystery indeed as to what solved the problem.