This morning i went to fire up ol' speedy (2005) and unfortunately heard some light thwacking as the starter motor did its thing. Having already had the stock sprag clutch fail, this is a condition i'm familiar with. When the original equipment failed at around 12k miles, i replaced it with the upgraded unit fitted to the '08+ 1050's-- has anyone ever heard of this newer, beefed up newer design failing? The battery is in great condition, I'm running heavy duty aftermarket stoltec wires to the starter, and a MOSFET R/R. The bike still cranks, starts, and runs like a champ, but I hear the knocking of doom when it's getting going. Upgraded sprag has about 30k miles on it- lots of it in cities, so it has seen some use, but no low voltage starts which i know can often spell death.
I would certainly rather not shell out $250 for a new sprag, so i'm here to ask if anyone knows anything about this kind of surgery:
[video=youtube;-c_OuBjz8nE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c_OuBjz8nE[/video]
A few bucks for an oil seal spring sounds like it could be a cheap solution to keep an already replaced part in service a while longer.
No, I upgraded the entire assembly including the running gear and whatever else comes with that $500 triumph sprag kit (forgive me, it was several years ago and the details are hazy). My understanding is that you cannot upgrade the sprag alone as it will not fit on the old running gear.
I popped the starter cover off today to discover that the reduction gear that interfaces with the starter splines has several teeth sheared off.
Now a question for the gurus: Did this gear get knackered most likely as a result of a failing sprag clutch? Or could this possibly be a standalone issue unrelated to the health of the starter sprag?
Any insight is appreciated as always. Thanks!
That certainly sounds possible. There weren't any hard kickbacks or anything before this problem popped up, one day it just started making loud clacks when cranking up.
Unfortunately the chewed up idler gear has worn the shafts on the starter motor which now looks like it will have to be replaced as well. I suppose I'll replace both of those bits and then assess the sprag... the whole time praying there aren't shorn gear bits making their way into my cam bearings :'(
Original Ural was actually a Soviet Commie copy of BMW R71 circa WWII. Then there is of course Chang Jiang, which is a Chinese Commie copy of the Soviet Commie Ural. Quality machines.
Wanted to update this:
I got a used idler gear and starter motor from ebay- sadly, the starter motor was even more chewed up than the one from my bike, so I replaced the idler gear and used the starter I already had- even though the splines are a bit worn.
While I was waiting for parts, I removed the sprag and took it apart. I'm not sure if it was slipping under load which caused the broken idler gear teeth, or if said teeth were waiting to break after the original sprag unit failed completely a couple of years ago.
The spring holding the sprag bits together looked a little worn, but not completely destroyed (see pic below). Nonetheless, I ordered an oil seal with a 55mm ID and harvested the spring from it. It seemed to match the factory spring from the sprag pretty closely, though the original appeared to have a slightly larger diameter, but that could just be from the stretches and kinks.
Now that the whole bike is back together, I can confirm that a 55mm oil seal spring seems to be a viable replacement for a worn sprag garter spring.
Speedy cranks up and turns on like a champ now- no slipping or clacking whatsoever.
I threw my KTM down the road Saturday in a 70 mph left hander. The bike was barely damaged other than a slightly bent right handlebar, broken throttle cable housing and pretzeled up rear brake lever. Already repaired the lever. I took a pretty good whack to the body but only my left knee is in slight pain, waay better than yesterday when I thought I might've torn my MCL.
Yeah, all geared up and at the end of a fun group ride. Damn back end skipped out about a foot and totally threw my line off. I tried to motocross it through the grass but had to throw it down coz of the looming trees. Oddly enough I came to rest at a roadside memorial for some poor guy who died on the spot.
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