Mystery Click Solved

The other day I posted about a clicking sound that developed , when I tried to start the bike. It was a occasional thing but getting more frequent. I checked the battery, and replaced the relay with my spare. The starter had been rebuilt recently.
I stopped down at the starter shop, and they knew exactly what it was. When tightening the nut that holds the battery cable in place , you can turn the post. This in turn will throw a internal contact out of alignment. To prevent this you need to use a back up wrench to hold the bottom nut in place. I had to grind a 13 mm wrench to thin out the open end jaws end.
One other cause can be from vibration, which I believe would come from not tightening the nuts down enough.

hi
doesn't sound right. as a mechanic you always tighten the first nut then put on the cable connector then washer then hold cable and tighten. the stud is held internally at the base.
herman

TURBO200R4 said:

hi
doesn't sound right. as a mechanic you always tighten the first nut then put on the cable connector then washer then hold cable and tighten. the stud is held internally at the base.
herman

Click to expand...

A couple of days ago I would have totally agreed with you. I have installed my share of starters over the years. Here is the deal. Some if not most have a square hole in the starter housing , then the bottom nut to hold it in place .
Then we have ours which has a round threaded shank. The bottom nut us suppose to hold it in place , but when you have a heavy handed wrenches like me it will turn the shank if the bottom bolt is not held in place.
I was told it is not that uncommon. They even have little tags telling you to put a backup wrench on. All I am doing is passing the info along .

Thanks for the info. I've seen a bit of this on euro generators ( with respect to rebuilding the starters)while I was overseas working in the field.

good tip..thanks for the post..glad ya got it straight.