I have just bought a VF500 engine on Ebay. Supposed to be low miles (3000) but I know nothing about its history. The bike sat in a garage for years and then it was bought by a breaker who sold the engine to me. Breaker claims he had it running but I don't believe him. From the look of the inlet valve stems and cams I have no reason to doubt the engine is very low miles. I removed the very rusty plugs and turned it over manually using the alternator centre bolt. All seemed fine so I filled with oil and a new filter. Turning the engine over slowly I also confirmed the gearbox works. Up to now all is well. However I connect the postive pole of a battery to the lead coming off the starter motor and the negative pole to the earth lead and... lots of sparks and crackles but no engine rotation. The starter is shorting. I rip off the starter, and off the bike it still doesn't work. So I suspect it is bust. I have another VF500 starter that I know is OK. I put this one on and.. lots of sparks and crackles but no engine rotation. The starter is shorting, again! So maybe something is seized in the engine. Would a bust up starter clutch display these symptoms? I stuck my finger in the hole made by the vacated starter and could move the starter clutch gear one way but not the other which is what is supposed to happen, I assume. The other question I have is would a broken starter clutch or something else preventing the starter rotating lead to a fried starter motor? If the starter is prevented from rotating there's no back emf so you get huge current. I assume this is what has knackered my two starter motors. However I am kind of surprised it caused the second starter to fail so quickly as I only connected to the battery for a second. Next step is to take off the clutch cover and see if there is any reason why the starter cannot turn the engine over. Any pointers welcome. It's now working. Lack of use so a good clean and lots of jiggery pokery mumbo jumbo and it seems oK. Engine has good compression. Happy days.
Some daft pillock PO installed Lucas elec-tricks ?? If the starter clutch is working right, usually you're able to slowly rotate the engine backwards using the crank bolt. It shouldn't upset valve timing, but on 500s, who can say ??
It's working now. Its the OEM starter too, not some satanic replacement. The engine was laid up for years so I dissambeled the starter and gave it a good clean. It was a bit dusty in there but it started working eventally. That's the thing with electric motors they are amazingly simple devices so pretty easy to clean and fault find.
