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Photo by Sean Howman,
The Pamir highway in an unseasonably
cold late October, Tajikistan



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  #1  
Old 29 Sep 2011
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Dead Starter on R100GSPD
The bike decided last week that starter motors are for wimps and it would be far more manly and invigorating for me to bumpstart the bike after every stop.

100% working battery

Click, click,click and nothing more from pressing the starter button.

Budapest

Resting here for a few days ( what a cracking city ) and have handed the bike to BMW in the city who are stripping it and trying to get a local shop to repair the starter.

If it all goes wrong.....any suggestions apart from setting fire to the bike?


I have gone through all the recognised emergency drills.

1) swearing at it
2) throwing bricks at it
3) good thrashing with a shrubbery
4) telling it, its being sold when I get back.
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  #2  
Old 29 Sep 2011
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Are all the leads tight?
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Old 29 Sep 2011
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Try a jump start from a battery you know is good, if it starts it could be the battery or the extra power 'masking' a starter motor fault, I had this on a R80GS, I take it that its the old airhead BM you have? If its the starter, what make is it? Bosch or Valeo? if Valeo get to a car breakers and some of the French cars use these starters, but I can't remember which ones, you just have to take the outer casing off from what I read somewhere.
Good luck
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Old 29 Sep 2011
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Sorry for 3rd post, but found this, Valeo starter overhaul http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/boschvaleostarter.htm
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Last edited by palace15; 29 Sep 2011 at 10:13. Reason: additions
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  #5  
Old 29 Sep 2011
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Hi!

R100GS....? Do you have a Kickstarter ??
Original R100 and R80 are no problem to kickstart!

Werner
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Old 29 Sep 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gummikuh View Post
Hi!

R100GS....? Do you have a Kickstarter ??
Original R100 and R80 are no problem to kickstart!

Werner

Neither my 100/7 or R80GS have kickstarters, and many years ago in the Isle of Man I asked a German rider who had a kickstart on his bike how good it was as i was considering fitting one, and he gave me a demo and explained it was not good enough to turn the engine over quick enough to start it
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Old 29 Sep 2011
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Valeo starter on the bike.

Tried starting from a battery booster....dead.

After stripping it out of the engine, the starter was declared deceased...I think they said it was something to do with the magnets....You will have to understand that I am struggling with the Hungarian language here.

My Englishmans instinctive ability to get any foreigner to undertsand me by making silly faces and waving my arms around was of no use during the phonecall to the mechanic.

Long story short, they reckon a local chap can repair it tomorrow..so fingers crossed and I will let you know how it goes.
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Old 29 Sep 2011
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As it is a Valeo it could be that the magnets have come adrift inside the starter. You will have to take it apart to find out so might want to rule out every other possiblility first. If you do take it apart it is likely that all of the magnets have come off so the starter is totalled and you will need another, try to get a second hand Bosch. If you are lucky, I was, only one magnet will have come off and you can remove all of the broken parts, clean it up and it will function with the remaining magnets, mine did for a couple of years like that.
Good luck
Mark
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Old 29 Sep 2011
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Yes, Valeo starters have problems with the glue that hold the magnets in place, there is also the carbreaker option, good luck.
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Old 29 Sep 2011
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Originally Posted by mark manley View Post
As it is a Valeo it could be that the magnets have come adrift inside the starter. You will have to take it apart to find out so might want to rule out every other possiblility first. If you do take it apart it is likely that all of the magnets have come off so the starter is totalled and you will need another, try to get a second hand Bosch. If you are lucky, I was, only one magnet will have come off and you can remove all of the broken parts, clean it up and it will function with the remaining magnets, mine did for a couple of years like that.
Good luck
Mark
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Yes, Valeo starters have problems with the glue that hold the magnets in place, there is also the carbreaker option, good luck.
As both these chaps have said, Valeo starters on airhead gs bikes are a well know bag of sh!t. Mine broke in Egypt a long while ago. Get a replacement Bosch one (that BMW used before they went for the cheaper -for them- French garbage) and it will work forever.

Good luck,

How I miss my old airhead...
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Old 30 Sep 2011
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Startermotor problem.

This is one reason why a Bosch starter is better - I prefer Valeo, but my preference is due to a silly problem with the Bosch starter... it does not turn when temps drops below -20'C... less one have a fully charged car battery at hand...

It is the same starter on the beemer as you will find in one of the Opel models from the 60:ties, early 70:ties.

Go "retro tuning"!
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Old 1 Oct 2011
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Just to let you know, the local electrician did a complete rebuild on the starter.....it was totally destroyed.Even repainted the casing to look immaculate as new.

With cost of BMW labour it came to about 200 Euro.

Anyhow, I am pushing on into Slovakia then Czech to see how it goes.
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Old 2 Oct 2011
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Glad to hear you are mobile again, those valeos are a PITA
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Old 3 Oct 2011
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Hi Palace!

The Kickstarter works ok! On the R80 and on the R100.....
After my Valeo broke ( magnets too) i used it for a while every day!

Werner
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Old 4 Oct 2011
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Many older French cars use the same Valeo starter. DR6A I think is the model reference but there is an important suffix too: e.g. DR6A-15
Also check that the bendix on any replacement has the same number of teeth.
A few months ago a scrapyard in Brittany helped me out at a very fair price - and I didn't even have to remove it from the car.
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