What starter motor is fitted to the V1000

[Hobbes64]

The V1000 in my care has a slow cranking starter motor. The battery is fine and just to be sure I've swapped it over for a new one from my Harley Battery leads have been replaced and the earth is good. I've sent the starter away to be checked and no fault was found.
Even with the plugs out the bike turns over slowly. The starter motor says Lucas Marine on it, are these easily sourced, I've googled the numbers on the motor but that's not shown anything and if I go by the spec sheet on the club website "Lucas starter 5M90" I find a Ford starter motor with built in solenoid that looks nothing like the unit on the bike
Thanks, Regards Chris

[Miti]

Hi Chris;

I found that my starter span pretty slowly when I bought my V1000 in 2011...  Knowing it's a 5M90 (Ford Cortina..!!) I was quite surprised to see how small the CSA of the battery and starter leads was.

Additionally, my earth lead was 'earthed' via one of the 5mm bolts holding the rear mudguard to the frame.  I replaced both leads with much thicker cable and re-positioned the earth to a much more appropriate part of the frame.

The Lucas '5M90' motor you've seen online is the complete unit.  This includes the nose casting/solenoid housing and the solenoid too.  As used on the Hesketh, the entire nose casting and solenoid is not used.  The armature, field coils, outer casing, brush assembly and end bearing plate are used.  The V1000 crankcase extension (where the starter bolts on) replaces the nose casting and the armature is supported by the bearing in the starter reduction gear support plate.

If you've tried everything else.  Have you tried sorting the solenoid terminals?  You may have a high resistance solenoid that's draining voltage from the starter...  Carefully shorting the terminal studs (big ring spanner, for example) will provided a dead short that should permit full battery volts to the starter.

Hope that helps

Jeff

[Hobbes64]

Hi, thanks Jeff, I've actually tried putting a lead from the starter motor directly to my VW T4 battery and a large earth lead direct to the frame and the motor is still slow even when the drive is disconnected from the engine
I might try a replacement motor and see how that goes. All cables have been replaced and the earth double checked