Dead starter motor?

[huggyg71]

Hi there, I have a p reg 600n, 23k miles and used every day as its my only means of transport. I think my starter motor might be borked. Would just like your opinion please.

I went to visit a relative earlier this evening and when attempting to start the bike to come home again all I got was a click from the relay when I pushed the button.

The starter motor never made any attempt to turn the engine over at all and didnt make any sound. Everything had power though and headlights indicators etc were all nice and bright. When the kill switch is on the relay doesnt click so that sounds ok to me as well.

The bike started with a bump start easy enough and when I got home I checked the battery with my multimeter and it was showing 12.78v, this dropped to 12.54v when I held the starter button for a few seconds and then slowly recovered when I let it go,

I have the battery on charge just in case but dont think the battery is at fault as It was new when I bought the bike last april and I have been looking after it. The relay clicks normally once every time the starter button is pressed so to me that sounds ok.

Would removing the starter and hooking it up to the battery be the next thing to try? Thanks very much.

[amorti]

Starter brushes are a common fault on the Divvy: disassemble, clean, reassemble, done.

[teejayexc]

'Blue Wire' syndrome?, gives the symptoms you describe.

Have a look here;

diversionclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=600&action=display&thread=9702

Hth, trev

[bobh]

Yes, either of the above.

Possibly the brushes are worn out (it happens a lot sooner than you'd expect). It's dead easy to take the motor off and check. New brushes are available from Wemoto, and are easy enough to solder in if you use a soldering iron with plenty of welly.

[huggyg71]

Checked all the wiring was ok this morning and relay was sounding ok and getting power to the starter.

Took the starter out and checked it with jump leads and a battery and it was dead as a dodo. I rang a friend who I know worked on car starters etc in the past and he stripped and cleaned it up for me, showed me how its done. He says the brushes are a bit worn but might get another six months or more out of it as it is.

Thanks for your help. I had a look on wemoto to see if I could order the brushes but couldnt see them listed. Can they be ordered from Yamaha?

[teejayexc]

They are on the Wemoto site, in the engine section for some reason ,

www.wemoto.com/bikes/Yamaha/XJ_600_N_Diversion/97/

By checking the wiring, did you double check the blue wire in the connector? They can look fine but where they sit in the connector block they have a tendency to get the 'verdigris' (sp?), crap on them and it stops them working every time.

[bobh]

OK, so there's power getting to the starter motor but it won't go even with a direct connection to a battery.

Next step would be to check the stator and armature windings for continuity and resistance (values may be in Haynes, though as I don't still have mine I'm not sure). Unlikely to be the armature as iif only one loop was o/c it would probably still turn on the bench. If possible, i.e. if you can disconnect the stator, also test the resistance of the armature through the brushes and make sure it is the same as measuring it direct.

I still suspect the brushes, as they can look to have plenty of material on them but the spring tension isn't enough to make good contact. Possibly try a bit of packing, preferably conductive e.g. a small brass washer, between the spring and the top of the brush.

Good luck - Bob

[huggyg71]

Hi there. I checked the blue wire connection and all the rest thanks, all clean and making good contact. I take the side panels off every so often and have a good clean, clean connections and spray with acf 50 etc anyway as it gets very dirty in there.

Starter seems fine now its all cleaned up inside, thanks for pointing me in the right direction, I take it I should order two brushes? as it looks like they sell them individually.

[bobh]

Yes, worth changing both if they look to have worn around the same amount. Though for the price you wonder if you ought to get the complete motor!