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Hi Everyone,
Finally got my bike rebuilt and out on the road last weekend. When, all of a sudden I come to a stop sign and the bike just died. I tried cranking it with the starter button and all I got was a clicking sound and dimming lights. I had only really driven it about five-ten minutes total.
I brought the bike back to the garage since it was down the street fortunately. The battery was dead so I charged it fully overnight. I have one of those antigravity LiFePo4 slim ones. Took a look at it with the tank/seat off today and it's stumping me. I am thinking it might be the starter solenoid? So I replaced it with an older one and nothing changes. I have all of my lights, turn signals, and horns, etc. and all the lights dim when I click the start button, and I've even seen some small smoke come from the negative side of the battery when clicking start. I can kick the engine over with the kickstart. Could I have possibly shorted the battery when wiring the bike back together? Why would it start with the button five minutes before it just dies on the street!?

Thanks

To me it sounds like a bad "ground" connection, if you have already tried replacing the starter motor. Especially the part about smoke from the negative side of the battery points in this direction. If it is not properly grounded then the wires will get warm.

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the tip q-base.
I have found the issue: Broken/Dead starter motor and when I went to take the motor off the bike I heard some rattling inside. I found the top of the armature that sticks through the plate COMPLETELY destroyed. Would this be cause from something such as too much amperage? Or when the bike starts going so fast it just rips apart?

My Question now is this, what would cause the inside of the starter rotating armature piece to break off and shatter everywhere?

I want to figure this out before I replace with a secondary starter motor that I somehow have. I don't want this to happen again so I am very hesitant to stick this other one in.

Thanks,
Chris

OH my godness, your complete copper commutator pads are melted away. all copper wires are de-soldered!!! Never seen so much destruction from over heating a starter!!! This is how a commutator Looks normal.

The starter looks like mega-corrosion from old age, and/or water entry. But if there was smoke at the negative terminal you probably have corrosion and a bad connection there also.

Hoping that it was old age and time to go. I SOMEHOW have a backup starter motor that I was going to sell but looks like it is coming in handy! I just CANNOT kill this one or I'm $%*@#$. So, I put it in, and the bike started right up. Idles great.
I just really want to find out if I get up to some certain RPM will I need to start worrying about freely spinning starter motors lol?

The starter clutch should only allow the starter to drive the crank, not the other way around (unless the crank spins backwards... Lol)

If it's failing to do that, it may be frozen due to lack of lubrication and should be rebuilt