Hitchcocks Forum

Just replaced my sprag clutch (Electra X 2007) and thanks for the advice previously given in another thread (which I can’t find). When trying to start the machine it gave all the appearance of a flat battery. After an overnight charge there was no improvement so I went down the poor connection route, still no improvement. Next thing was draw the starter and make sure the gear to which it engages rotated freely, all good, got the shimming right. While the motor was hanging out I put a jump lead from it to engine case and it rotated as fast as I expected it to… AHA, bad earth between starter motor body and engine casing, cleaned the mating faces by the mounting screws and all is well. The starter had been off for a couple of weeks so I suppose a bit of ally corrosion set in. ADAM

Thanks for telling us about it Adam; some others would have had it in a thousand pieces all over the floor and probably would have thrown it in the bin.