Hey, gang,

I went riding with my girlfriend(she was riding my LT230E), and she had to restart via the electric start a number of times, for a variety of reasons, without any issue, until... we got back to the parking lot to help my buddy unload, and when she went to start it back up the electric start was just spinning. The motor is working, but it just spins and doesn't engage the flywheel or pump the piston. I assumed the gear was sheared so I unbolted the starter motor and took a look at the starter motor gear and the corresponding gear that it meshes with. Both gears are in perfect condition still, so I threw it back on and had the same result. It's as if the starter motor is spinning the gear that it meshes with, but that gear is not meshing with the gear that spins the flywheel. To be clear, I did try the pull-start, but it has so much compression that the handle pulled right off. Cue up tearing the recoil apart and fixing that for the next half hour, and when we got it back on, the quad wanted to start but didn't have enough cable to pump the piston enough to actually get going. I only add this bit so that we can avoid questioning whether the rings are bad, or whether the flywheel is engaging at all. Also, it is not the battery. the battery was fully charged and we even hooked it up to another battery to be sure. Like I said, my guess is that somehow the starter is spinning the gear that it meshes with, but that gear is not engaging the flywheel, but I don't know why. I know you clever bastards can steer me in the right direction though, just wanted to give you as much information as possible to get things going. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

If you are sure, certain, positive the big gear wheel behind the flywheel is not going round with the starter, but the idler gear it meshes with is, then obviously, the idler gear has lost some teeth, or is out of position due to a worn bush or shaft in the middle of it. However, in 99% of cases the big gear does go round with the starter, but flywheel doesn't, meaning the one way clutch between gear and flywheel has failed, you buy a new one, and make sure you fit it the right way round.

 

Thank you for the insight. I'm guessing you are right about the bearing being bad, because when I took the starter motor back out and tried to spin the starter idler gear, it was spinning freely, but at one point, the electric start caught and almost fired it up. So, it would logically follow that the gear probably caught it just right once and it fired. Is there any way of getting the flywheel off without a puller that you know of? I don't mind ordering one, but if there is a workaround, that's always preferred.

 

Never worked on a 230, mostly Eigers and later Suzuki King Quads that we maintain, and they do require a puller to get flywheel off. They are mostly so tight the "genuine" one won't do it, so I made one up to take a hydraulic puller.