My starter is still making a horrendous grinding noise. I'm beginning to wonder if this is normal for this bike. Here are some of the relevant commments on this subject from the Virago list I'm on:
I bought my Virago in August 02. I had read lots
about the starter engagement problem and had looked at
the shim kits before I even had my hands on the bike.
The starter rattled like rocks and would only engage
every other start or so. This got progressively
worses even though I had installed the shim kit. I
went on a ride with a more experienced rider and his
comment was that my bike would start better if the
starter would engage and stay engaged. I decided to
re-think the whole process. I read everything again
looking for ideas that i had dismissed. what came up
more than once was the idler gear #2 and the effect of
rounding off of the edge due to poor
engagement/grinding.
I bought a new idler gear #2 ($75 - ouch). I pondered
buying the circlips too but didn't - now wish I had.
another item i wish i had bought was the spring that
pushes the gear away when starter dis-engages.
anyway, i took it all apart and replaced the idler.
the shim had to come out because the new idler had a
hard rubber spacer on the back side that provide
adequate spacing. i didn't take the shim out the
first time i re-assembled and the whole affair would
bind up when i hit the starter. one thing i did do
was to cut the spacing spring that pushes the gear
back because my concern was making it engage. now,
periodically, the gear doesn't dis-engage when it
should and i can hear it spin for 2-3 seconds after it
should quit. i believe that i created that problem by
cutting the spring. if i had it to do over i'd
replace the spring and let it go at that.
I'm very happy with the starter engagement now and
most starts i get it going on the first crank, even
when cold. the disengagement is the issue now, but
i'll take that over the other problem. if i would
spend another $30-40 and a couple of hours replacing
circlips and the engagement spring i'll bet that
problem would disappear, but i'd rather ride than
wrench.
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Has anyone tried the fix for the infamous Virago starter grinding that is offered on ebay. Mine is doing it a little and I'm thinking about taking it apart and sending the flywheel in to this guy to have the teeth reground. I have never pulled a flywheel before and I'm wondering how big a job it will be?
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First, installed shim which fixed problem, not the noise but it started regularly. This lasted a couple of years and would have lasted longer except for my penchant of riding in the winter. Riding down to -5 F was hard on the primitive system and it finally gave out. .... I had picked up a crashed parts bike and had taken it partly apart ... removed the flywheel and had sent it off for regrinding. Thus when starter apparatus finally failed, given the difficulty I had experienced in removing the flywheel I took the bike to my friendly shop and had them install the reground flywheel, making sure the shim was also reinstalled.... For me removal of flywheel was frustrating, likely because I was too cautious. I spent several hours with various wheel pullers and a propane torch getting nowhere. The guys at the shop had told me I would have to heat the flywheel to get it off. I just didna realize how much and when paint started to bubble and smoke I backed off. Finally out of desperation, I tightened the wheel puller as much as I could, gritted my teeth and applied the torch full bore. The paint sizzled and smoked but I preserved and after an eternity (probably a minute or two) there was a loud PING and it was off...
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http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.boudreau/LarrysViragos.htm
Website on starter problems
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leave spring #10 out. also if it is too cold, it is too hard for it to crank. keep the battery inside untill you are ready to crank it to life.
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doesn't work for everyone but its one of the fixes. some just yank it through the oil filler hole.
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also some folks just trim a few coils off the spring.
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My starter made and acted the same as you described. I pulled the that spring out, rode all summer/fall. No problems as of yet. I did all the other "fixes" for this starter problem. Stronger bolts, welded the bull gear inside, etc.. The only thing that made any improvement was removing that spring.
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If I leave out that spring, what disengages the starter from the flywheel?
I'm probably blind, but I'm not seeing how the #7 gear is going to dis-engage without at least some spring tension on it?
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those who clipped a few coils off the spring report good success on the email list.
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http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/7448/starter1pa.jpg
item #2 in the above drawing is what is used to disengage the gears. the spring #10 is an after-thought on a poorly designed system!! the starter is the big problem on these. if it wasn't for that, everything else is trivial.
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If your not wantin to take it apart again just yank that spring out through the oil hole. You can replace it later. Save ya some tear down time.
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http://www.drpiston.com/81_83_Starter_Paper.html
This guy seems to know what he's talking about and has detailed instructions for fixing the starter.
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http://viragotech.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3794
http://www.drpiston.com/
http://www.dansmc.com/virago_starter.htm
http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.boudreau/LarrysViragos.htm
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You probably need an extra shim by the planetary gears, maybe a new engagement gear
(maybe not), shim the engagement gear, and a new horseshoe clip. Pretty
small stuff. That being said, early Virago starters are not good and do
make more noise than average. Yes, metal filings on the magnet are normal,
especially with this starter arrangement.
