The dealer says the starter tests good so they told me to check the starter drive . can anyone help with the best way to do this and a part # to look at .
have tried two different batteries with 12.8 & 13.1 volts . When using the electric start it may turn over one time and that is it . Even with the charger also hooked up maybe twice but no where near enough spin to start . Will start fine with the kick start . i have the starter off so any suggestions are appreciated .

Thank you

 

Take the clutch cover off(leave the kick start lever on the cover) look up above front clutch where the electric starter enters and you will see an idle gear (double gear) Usually when you have an intermittent starter engagement its because you have a some broken teeth on the inner part of the idle gear and it skips. Plus the gear can get belt dust and dirt on the shaft not allowing it to operate correctly. Had this happen a few times. OPT

 

Thank you , I will give it a try . Hopefully I will be able to re-asemble it in working condition .

 

Starter drive spins freely on the shaft and no missing or stripped teeth . Do you have any other sugestions that I can check ? I put a volt meter on the battery before coming in tonight 12.4 volts . The battery is an everstart ES5 from walmart . I took the first one back to see if they could load test it and they said they have no way to do that for smaller batteries . They replaced it . Since I am having the same problem I am thinking something else is the problem .
One more thing ! When I pulled the drive off I dropped one of the small washers and the wave washer . I still had one on the shaft . Does the wave washer go between the two or do the two stack and the wave washer on last ?

thank you , I really apreciate your help .

 

Wave washer goes between the two flat washers,then the shaft pin and the mounting bracket.If this all operating smoothly,teeth not damage,etc and you've changed out the battery,I think you might be down to starter not working well under a load! Starter brush kit is only about 12 bucks and this could solve the problem along with cleaning the starter armature of dirt and dust and maybe a light buffing of armature with an emory cloth! PS before you do anything charge the new battery a few hrs on a trickle charger if you have it,then see if the starter works better! If not then I would order the brush kit! A new starter is about 150 bucks! OPT

 

Thank you again . I will see if I can get it all back togeather as it came apart and see what happens .

 

Got it back togeather and hooked up a 1 amp charger for several hours today . At first it did the same thing so I left it alone on the charger . later on it started , with charger still on . Then it would not . Kick started on the first try . Had the kid ride for a while to see if it might charge . turned it off and it would not start with the button . Hooked the charger back up and tried an hour later . It popped off the first time just fine . next time slower but worked . Third time with no charger would not go . Just for the heck of it I took the battery out of the 500 and clamped the cables to it . Same deal hardly turned over . Only tried it once , didn't want to chance causing a bigger problem .
Before bolting the starter back on I plugged it in and ground it to itself . It spun off the starter button .

Starting to look like you mentioned about the starter not woking under a load ? Any suggestion on where to get the brushes ?

Thanks again

 

#0450535 starter brushes. $11.77 at Cycle Parts Warehouse. You can try just to clean the starter up first and try it out. OPT

 

more help please !! I was able to purchase a new/rebuilt ? starter on ebay for 27.00 .

I put it on last night and had the same problem the first time I tried it . Check voltage on the battery ( 12.86 ) . tried it again and it worked perfectly . Tried another time . same problem . This is the second battery . Any ideas on what I do next ? the one I have in my head dosn't sit real well with the kid !!

Thank you

 

Only problems I've had on these are either the battery,starter,or starter drive gears!You say you checked the starter drive(idle gear assembly) gears,but if you probably compare the teeth on the idle/starter gear to a new one you will more than likely see how these soft teeth wear down.They don't necessarily have to have chipped teeth,just worn down to where the starter will work intermittently. This could be the reason for the problems! I've really only had to replaced a couple starters and replaced more idle gear assemblies than anything! OPT.