Hitachi Starter Motor- Brushes, Shaft Seal

[neilskiw]

New to the board. thanks in advance. A buddy's XS650 - Mid '70's vintage. Hitachi Starter.

Bike was sitting a LOOOONNNNNGGG time. Removed starter. was filled with a mixture of oil and gas, as was the crank case. I guess gravity fed the fuel from the tank through 1 or both carbs, and then past an intake valve, past piston rings, to crank case.

Question- Are brushes and seal Available? Where? Do you need more info from bike? Year, serial #, etc.?

thanks again!!! neilski

[71XS1B]

Welcome to the Garage neilski!

Try either of these places for your XS650 parts, including the brushes & seals you're after:

650central.com/ or www.mikesxs.net/

Go here for down-loadable parts & service manuals:

www.biker.net/

Of course you will find a ton of good wrenching info right here if you spend some time searching the site. If you can't find something specific however, just ask. There are a lot of friendly folk here always willing to help others.

Cheers,
Dan

[retiredgentleman]

There are actually 2 seals. 1 for the starter motor shaft and 1 for the engine casing. The most difficult thing is removing the 2 long screws that hold the starter motor together. I had to cut a slot into the head of one screw in order to use a slot screwdriver.

The starter motor is very well built.When you take it apart you may find the brushes are not worn much. New length is 0.630" and replace is 0.280". I found mine at 0.587", so I did not replace them.

I also found the commutator to have minimal wear. I just used some Autosol polishing compound to clean up the copper segments. You can use any polishing compound, even tooth paste would likely work.

Be aware that the casing oil seal does not fit evenly alined with the engine casing. 3bond 1104 gasket sealant is put around the outer edge of the seal and then push the seal into the casing.........but only part way. Then use the starter motor itself as a guide to push and aline the seal correctly...............see picture.

[retiredgentleman]

Another picture

[neilskiw]

Centering the armature in the brush holder, it appears that one of the two brushes is barely (at best) contacting the commutator. I really like the idea of tooth paste to polish the commutator. I have used it elsewhere (like on my teeth), but had not considered it for this application (what do you recommend, Pearl Drops? Crest? Colgate?).
Also, I had not considered replacing the seal on the crank case. But it seems like a good idea, since the starter removal is a bit tricky (putting it back will be even more fun).
I couldn't find that seal on the Biker.net exploded views. I'm sure it's there, but which drawing?
Lucky for me, I had no trouble disassembling the starter motor.

Thanks again for the help! I'll keep you posted on the progress. Neilski

[retiredgentleman]

As for the brush length.............go by the dimensions I listed above. If one brush is barely touching, it must be quite short, and needs to be replaced. I prefer Colgate.........for sparkling clean teeth ;D