The notorious starter malady

Nostroke · Jul 21, 2012

Hi,
I'm new here and love my 2002 Tuono (34k miles). I've had it for maybe two years, lotsa track and road days, etc. I've read lots of posts about the sprague / battery / starter solenoid / financial devastation.
My bike still starts and has battery tender, fresh bat, Yam solenoid, etc. With battery well charged, I'm still getting the nasty grinding noise when starting. My question is: When all is good, sprague, starting circuit, battery state of charge...are they still noisy when cranking?
I'm about to embark on a 4,000 mile trip, with lots of gas stops and re-starts and am contemplating replacing the sprague out of pure paranoia. But those are some spendy bits!

STiX · Jul 22, 2012

I have an 03 with 21k and no it's not noisy at all when starting, starts first time every time - also have the yam relay, decent battery etc.

Nostroke · Jul 22, 2012

Thanks for the reply. I just added a headlight switch, so as to keep battery voltage as high as possible. And its quieter when starting, perhaps, but still makes a brief low frequency screech when I shut it off. Is the noise at shutoff typical with your "happy" system?

Nostroke · Jul 22, 2012

btw, just looked at your ride and its nearly identical to mine. I kind of butchered mine, trying to make it into a camper for my long trip. Bent up a bunch of aluminum tubes to hold camping gear. And the saddlebags help it wheely if you keep them loaded.

chrisl · Jul 22, 2012

Mine (an 04 model) makes a sort of screech when you switch the ignition off, always has and I've never worried about it. I had my sprag replaced a while back as it sounded like somebody was hitting the engine with a hammer when you pressed the starter. Just a sort of wurrr, wurrr, brum brum noise now.

STiX · Jul 22, 2012

No no noise when shutting off either.

That's one different front end!!

Nostroke · Jul 22, 2012

Go ahead and say it..its butt ugly. I can handle it.
I was inspired by an old US TV show, "Then Came Bronson", where he mounted his sleeping pack onto the front end of his Sportster. And I have always hated all the plastic crap on modern sportbikes. So I took a cue from a Honda Ruckus scooter and just said, its ugly, now make it work. No Tuonos were harmed in the making of this monstrosity. Everything unbolts and can easily be returned to the original Italian sweetness of the bike.

Nostroke · Jul 22, 2012

And I must add (again)....it is more stable on one wheel with the saddlebags. Like a boat with outriggers. For that, I was inspired by Charlie in "Long Way Around", he always wheelies his massively overloaded turd Beemer when the camera is on him.

Nostroke · Jul 22, 2012

Does anyone out there know what the thread size and pitch is on the special tool for the stator? From the pix online it looks like maybe M20 x 2.0...

The notorious starter malady

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