Hitchcocks Forum

Out on the Electra today and happily blatting away at 55-60 mph. When suddenly bike dies - no warning, no coughs, farts or hiccups. Checked the usuals fuses, fuel, lights horn electrics all good. Except when trying to start electric start and makes a grinding sound from starter - primary cover area. Also now when I turn engine with the kick start it sounds like grinding. I have take off starter motor and now the bike will start ( I turned it back off again straight away) I can see the starter crown wheel through the opening which has free play (about 10mm both directions) and (about 5mm on its shaft) is it the dreaded sprag failure? How can the sprag fail whilst the bike is travelling?

This does sound like the spray. These things are just not fit for purpose and if you can manage without it I'd dump the electric boot altogether.

Sprag... Methinks. And it failed when you started the engine before your trip, it then disintegrated as you rode and jammed the starter on.

Time to remove the sprag and I'll stick with kickstart. On the plus side I'll get to fit the chain tensioner I bought last week.(hitchcocks rubber head)

Finally got the sprag clutch off, it is jammed with what looks like small parts of the internal circlip. I can see the circlip is broken through 2 of the small holes in drive cogs and a bit is jammed tight. How does the sprag seperate to get inside ?

I managed to separate the gears and yes the sprag has suffered a catastrophic failure. Bit of it fell out everywhere. Now to reassemble less the electric start.

If you can find one, there is a kick-start only version of the Electra-X inner primary cover which tidies things up greatly, part no. 50209A for left foot shift, 50208A for right foot shift. I managed to get this one from our hosts, but they can be difficult to find, as the Indian home market 350 Electra for which they were intended was never an official import here.







A.

Sprag and starter motor now removed, used the Hitchcocks plug to fill the hole. Also took the opportunity to fit primary chain tensioner bolt (with rubber seated head). Started bike up and what a difference in chain case noise - so much quieter now. I like the idea of the replacing the inner case with the one Adrian mentions but that will have to wait, I just want to get out and enjoy riding for now.