Forest Work and My Kawasaki Starter Motor Repair

Monday February 27, 2023 Guerneville CA.

More rain today

Seems we are in a rainy time which is ok with me. I just need to adjust what I do.

It was raining when I woke this morning with some pretty heavy downpours.

When I got it going I checked the weather guys to see what I might do today. They had a break in the rain from about noon to three which would give me enough time to to up into the forest and finish what I started yesterday, fixing the too tight turn in the old trail

I almost finished yesterday, but figured I still had an hour or two to move the last bit of dirt I needed to move to finish it off.

So, just after noon, I jumped on the dirt bike and pushed the electric start button and it worked and started the bike. Despite the rain stopping, it was still pretty wet up there with the big trees still dripping some water, but I had my  rain jacket on.

The dirt was pretty muddy also. I got right to it and started moving the dirt and was almost finished in an hour when a heavy rain shower came in. I retreated to under a big tree for a break for about fifteen minutes when the shower let up.

I thought I better get the work done before another downpour developed, so I got to it. The sun came out and no more showers. I had all the work done in about a half hour.

Dirt bike won’t start

When I went to start the bike, it wouldn’t start even with the hammer. No problem, I just coasted down the hill and started it, in gear.

I think I need to take the starter apart to see if I can fix it as my new one doesn’t come for a couple weeks.

Starter motor repairs

After a short nap, I decided to take the starter out of the dirt bike so I got out the tools and went to it.bike

 

Starter

In a short time I had the starter motor out of the bike.starter

 

I disassembled the motor to get to the brushes that I knew where worn.moter

 

Springs

I didn’t have any new brushes so my plan was to stretch the springs that push on the brushes out, just a bit, to make them longer and push a bit harder, was the hope, making the brushes get better contact.springs

 

A bit of a problem

But now I had a problem. You have to install the springs and then put the brushes in, before you can put the motor part back in. But how to do that as the springs want to push the brushes out before you can get the motor part back in.brushes

 

The solution

Here is my solution to that problem that made it all easy.treak

 

I used the clips to hold the brushes in after I installed the springs. The clips clip the brush wires to the plastic holder to keep the springs and brush in so the motor part can be inserted into the bearing.clips

 

The motor part is inserted and then the clips are removed and the rest of the motor can be put back together.cliped

 

Those clips make a complicated job easy. I put it back together but it was too late to install it on the bike, but at least I got this far.

I also found some brushes on EBay for about fifteen bucks and ordered them.

Nice day.

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