OK, I leant my 90 to a good friend. His kids are experience riders, but they had another kid along who had never ridden before. I thought the deal was that my friend's kids would ride my 90, and the newbie kid would ride the friends bikes because they were automatics. But, the newbie kid ended up on my machine..........

Appearently what happened is the newbie kid pulled the recoil starter AFTER THE BIKE WAS ALREADY RUNNING. The recoil starter has a paul inside that extends under centrifugal force when it is pulled and that engages 4 notches on the flywheel, and that is what turns the engine over. The paul then retracts and all is well. But, if you pull it while the bike is running, it catches on the notches and in this case the spinning flywheel RIPPED THE PAUL RIGHT OFF. The paul rattled around in there, but get this, the kid jumped on and went riding anyway! After we discovered the problem (when the recoil wouldn't work), the kid said he had heard a "bad noise" but kept on riding (for an hour or so!) anyway.

So, I have a ruined recoil, the side case is cracked in 4 places (not going to be cheap, but at least it isn't part of the engine case), and the bike will not even push start anymore. What I am thinking, is that the stator is inside there below the starter, and the paul chewed up that as well. Anybody know if that is where the stator is??? Going to have to find a parts diagram and sort out all the damage!

 

Gosh I haven't looked at a ninty in so long but I think the alternator is right behind the pull start.

I have a parts finder link.

 

I just went with the 2000 model year and you can see its not going to be cheap to fix.

Parts finder



After the fact;
I went to the honda site for a side picture and was confused for a second because for 06 they have added electric start.

The ALTERNATOR is right behind the pull start.

 

Wow, sorry to here about that reconranger.
Something I don't understand. On all the starter I have worked on, they were all one way type. In other words, even if it was a paul type starter, and the engine was running, the pauls would just slid over the notches. Kind of like thump, thump, thump. It would not catch because it is a one way design. Some of the Briggs I have worked on are made like this.
Why would yours grab? What am I missing?
Anyway, I trust your "good friend" will pay for all the damage?

 

Well, I had the dealership ($$$) do the work seeing that I am so busy (just changed jobs), and we have a bunch of riding trips scheduled over the holidays..........so time is short, and I can't leave the little kids with nothing to ride. Looks like the total will be around $800! The stator is ruined, it needs a new side case, probably a flywheel, and pull starter.

WARN YOUR KIDS ABOUT NOT PULLING THE STARTER WHEN THE ENGINE IS ALREADY RUNNING!

 

the design of the honda pull start is a one way type on a properly functioning recoil it just makes a loud ticking noise and pulls out real easy...I think somethin else broke causeing the failure...if the prawls engaged while running $800 would be the least of my worries ...the broken hand and fingers on the kid is what I would worry about...It would jerk the rope back in the housing...what killed the bike was continuing to ride it....

 

Alternator???????????????

 

reconranger,

I'm sorry to read about your broken TRX recoil and expensive repair bill. Man, that's gotta hurt!!!! As reading it, it reminded me of my 6x12 utility trailer. Every time I loan it out, it or something because of it "gets broken". And the folks who borrow it don't want to pay for its damage. All I get is "sorry". And, I'm stuck with its repair bill. Even 3 years later, my wife is still lecturing me about the side of the tree in our front yard that was 1/2 shaved off (from its 5ft high rear gate).. Today, I don't loan our trailer out. Period!!!! No one except my family members have driven our Pred-90. Besides the liability and others could get hurt thing, I'm afraid it will come back broken as well. I'm sure you're thinking about a "no more loaning out" policy in your family as well....

If your replaced recoil breaks again (or gets too worn out), you may want to investigate a kick-starter replacement. I remember reading on another forum and kick starters are now available. Not too sure what year this custom product will fit but a kick starter might be better - for your needs / wants.

Hope this helps - somehow...

.

 

That was the area of the TRX90

ENGINE
ALTERNATOR


break down on the parts finder.

 

I don't know. After my incident, I payed a lot of attention to how kids start the 90 (there were about a half-dozen of them in our group). One kid in our group did the same thing (bike began to start, but the kid pulled the cord again anyway), and it MADE A VERY SCARRY NOISE! I can imagine that if you did this to many times, something bad is going to happen...............

I know the difference between an alternator and a generator, but how is a stator different from those? I used the term stator, because that is what the parts guys at the dealership were calling it.