Mechs are good people, wheel a spanner.

Engineers don't know what a spanner is, spent their whole career burried in books, d#^%heads.

Give you an example:- an engineer calls me up to his office and gives me a piece of equiptment he has redesigned ( because the original was too fiddly for the precious pilot to use with gloves on) and asks me to fit it and call him when done.

I fit it and call him to come and look, he steps into the flight deck looks around for a while and then asks me where it is, didn't have a clue.

But is easier to change, fix even if it is under the inlet manifold 

Still a lot easier than a fucken Harley starter motor  to swap out 

Stupid isn’t it USA built but we will use a jap starter lol 

Yep I’ll race you any day those manifolds are a peace of piss 

To pulll off , you don’t even have to drop coolant  

And I'm glad the starter motor for it is used in some Toyota's, just another source of spare parts.

Interested in that Steve. What Toyotas use a starter motor that can be used in a Sportster? And also, is that all Sportsters or just specific years/models?

Cheers, Will

(I have a '95, a 2004 and a bitza project four speed of about '85)

Obisteve

I'll bet the Toyota one is at least 3/4 of the price too, if not cheaper.

I had the year wrong for a start, it was Feb 2013, not 2011. Also had the sequence of events wrong. After the drowning and drying out the starter was a bit slow spinning, so my first step was to open up the solenoid and found the the contacts on both the plunger and body were worn and pitted, so first visit to an old school auto lec in Nambour. At that stage he made the Corolla comment and supplied a rebuild kit for the solenoid. That fitted and improved starting a lot. A month later I dropped the bike in mud on my 1.3 km driveway and broke my leg. My mates who had helped me pull it out of the flooded creek refused to help me recover it until my tibia healed, they knew I'd be riding it too soon. So it sat in the paddock for 7 weeks, and by the time it was back in the shed the starter was badly rusted inside. That's when I bought the All Ball's 1.4 kW one, same as the early 5 speed Sporties. Went back to the auto lec to look into rebuilding the rusty one but didn't do it.

OK, the lec when he made the Corolla comment hadn't measured the diameter of the boss that fits through the inner primary, or the spacing on the 2 mounting bolts, was just going by eye.

88 -90 Corolla starters are clockwise spinners with 9 teeth on the pinion gear, same as 4 speed Evo Sporties and early 5 speed ones.

The early 5 speed ones fit into the 4 speed Evo bikes, so 86-90.

The Corolla and Sporty ones have the same part number first group of numbers  12800, but do they interchange? Dunno for sure. The solenoid rebuild kits do. Better get an auto lecs advice before spending the money. Went looking in the shed for the junk starter  couldn't find it, was gunna measure the boss diameter and the mounting bolt spacing. Did find the junk solenoid plunger and contacts, standard Nippon Denso parts. Did find some other interesting stuff though, first edition of 2 wheels magazine, and one with the first Oz road test of the 1200 Sporty.