Tiger 800 Starter Motor (NOT A) SOLUTION

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

MonkeyMartin

Puppy
Joined
Feb 19, 2018
Messages
24
Reaction score
3
Location
Cape Town
Bike
Honda XR400
I am in no way special and have dealt with the infamous starter motor issue for some time now, having read about replacing brushes to replacing OEM units I had hoped there was another option. Especially as my bike is my main form of transport (and only transport from where I work on it) I needed a replacement I could fit when I did the 60K km service.
Turns out there is an option.
When speaking to Ryan of Ryan's Motorcycle Surgery and pleading with him to sell me the starter off a crashed almost new XCX (which the starter had been sold off already) he said he can make a better plan for me. Here goes:
What he did at a cost of R3000 was supply me with a used starter from a ZX10. Now it was not as simple as just bolting it on a new unit. The brackets are longer and so new holes need to be drilled into the ZX10 starter brackets in line with where the ones on the tiger run so that the hole centers line up (and not like 10mm out). The extra long brackets also come interestingly close to the other plugs etc in the area and that makes fitment tricky. (My suggestion is to remove the shock canister and insert the motor in from the side of the bike rather than using the more logical route of going in from the top where the throttle bodies were (which necessitated removing the thermometer and spilling coolant everywhere).
Oh but there was another problem, and this took a bit longer to find... the brackets on the ZX starter ALSO sit lower on the starter casing than the triumph ones do, so there was a misalignment and inserting the starter in the hole was near impossible (with enough force anything is possible) - but then there is side loading on the bearings and the damn thing wont turn the motor over). SO carefully file away micron by micron of the bottom of the bracket till the starter slides in and out just as smoothly as the OEM one does... then Bob's your uncle right?
NO, not so easy. the triumph starter connects to the positive lead at the 12 O'clock position on the starter far away from other pesky bits and pieces like engine cases etc, the ZX10 starter however has this pole sticking out at the 10 or 2 O'clock position (depending which way you look at it) and it connects with part of the gearbox housing that sits behind the starter. Me being pissed off at this stage just bent it into a safer place, breaking the ceramic (I thought rubber) insulator at the same time. So I made a remedy for that.
All connected up and now my bike starts with WAY more enthusiasm than ever before, hot or cold.
Moral of the story is that there is a starter motor out there that can be made to fit with enough effort, Ryan's Motorcycle Surgery in Maitland, Cape Town sells them for 3K (when I bought mine). Also, The part number sticker had come off and I'm not sure what year bike it came off either, in due time I will find these things out.
Small caveat, he needs your OEM one so that the hole centers can be drilled. If you ask me nicely you can collect and use mine, its in storage in Hout Bay
 
Top