Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Bike won't start after engine cover replacement

Hi there, sorry to do another 'bike won't start' thread, i've done a chunk of searching and not really found what i'm looking for (well...by that i mean a working bike).

Firstly, the background..

This is for a Triumph Scrambler, but hopefully you guys will be able to give advice anyway.

I removed the clutch cover and alternator cover (the triangular one ish) from my girlfriend's bike and took them apart to be Chromed which (eventually) they were.

process was :

empty oil
disconnect battery
remove covers (and associated bits)

the bike itself sat there for about a month in the garage until i had time to put everything back together (which i did today).

once i re-pugged in the battery i turned the ignition on (lights on no worries) and pressed the starter and got a single 'click' from the left side of the bike.

engine didn't try and turn over, no other sounds, just a single click.

(my worry is that i've done something to the alternator, i'm hoping it's something simpler though)

Any ideas? (i've left it plugged into a battery optimiser just in case, but i'm not hopeful).

The only other thing is that i can upshift from neutral (to second and third) but i can't downshift to 1st anymore - i think i just need to re-adjust my clutch cable though.

any clues or ideas would be great, otherwise to the dealer it goes on monday!

-Ant

The shifting probably isn't the cab;e since not running with no clutch use at all you should be able to get all gears just by rocking the bike a little back and forth while shifting. My thought would be you didn't get the starter intermediate gear in place correctly and it is binding on the starter.

Can you put it in gear and pull the clutch to roll the bike in gear? If not then you may have not assembled the clutch linkage correctly. Be careful you don't break the starter intermediate gear dogs.

hi Dog, cheers for the reply

(not totally sure what the starter intermediate gear is, but i'll do a quick Haynes look to make sure im not getting the wrong end of the stick).

However, i can confirm that i can put it into gear (2nd) and roll it forward. I Just can't get it down into first (though i can get into neutral).

Just to clarify on the clutch side, i didn't disassemble any of the clutch bits itself (the cogs and stuff). I removed the cover and from the cover removed the erm..spike thing with the spring and associated bits.

i'm 99.999% sure i've put the cover bit back together correctly - at the same time i've been mostly following the haynes manual so could always be wrong!

checked the bike this morning after a night on the battery charger, just that 'click' again.

it's going to be looked at by the dealer monday anyway, but if there's anything i can look at in the mean time i'd welcome the advice

I would definitely be worried about the starter idler gear shaft being properly fitted. It fits between a socket on the engine casing and the cover. If not lined up exactly it can bind and could do damage. My cover had not been off and the socket part of the casing broke. All my starter would do was click. My dealer had to order a new casing and tear the whole engine out of the bike, replace the casing and put it all back together. Fortunately, it was covered on warranty even though mine had expired.

Triumph beefed up the casing socket on later models. Not sure if it was '07 or later. Apparently, they knew it was a potential problem. If the shaft is not exactly straight, it stresses that socket. Let's hope it isn't your problem, but I would get it to a service dealer.

We had this similar problem a while back from one of the guys I think in the Isle of Man exactly the same thing it turned out he had not put the starter drive components back in properly. That is where my money is as already said above, just hope you have not caused any damage..

Guy from our local Triumph dealership picked up the bike today and got the prognosis this afternoon.

Apparently one of the cogs (sorry i can't be more specific) - the smaller one to the far left of the clutch. Had become dislodged to the point that it was totally out of alignment.

Ray - i think that might be the starter drive you were referring to?

Anyway they took it apart and put it back together again and apart from some slight wearing of the starter motor it starts first time.

The cost? a hours labour and a case of beers (so about 60 something quid plus beers).

Good guys over there, heart attack over.

Ant

That is the gear I also was talking about.

Aha! in which case you were both right! whereas i have learnt a valuable lesson in spannering...do it on my girlfriend's bike and not on mine



regardless, cheers again for the great input guys

Ant

Hi, Ant. Did you ever get your America running properly? What was the problem?

That idler gear has it's shaft plugged into the engine casing. REALLY glad the casing socket wasn't damaged.

I wonder how long Triumph will continue to replace the cases out of warranty. It's the one thing that worries me happening to my bike.

Ian, they told me it has only happened to 2% of the models before the change. It was more likely to happen with the shaft alignment off a little. My bike was over 8 months out of warranty.

Odds are you won't have to worry, but be sure it's really straight if you have to remove the engine cover.

If they didn't fix it if mine broke I would have to set up a roller so I could start it using my BMW.

I just got my 2 parts (idler gear wavy washer, and clutch sifter arm return spring)and put the engine cover back on. I have tried and retried over a dozen times, but it does not seem to work.

When I spin the starter with the cover off (holding the idler gear shaft in the socket with my finger) all works well. As soon as I put the primary engine cover on, I just get the one click. I tried putting the cover on without the clutch shifter "bullet" and even without the breather pipe, but still won't work. I have tried it with leaving the cover loose and "wiggling" the cover while trying to turn the starter also.

I am about to give up and take it to a dealer a couple of hours away by trailer.

Anybody got any thoughts. I hate to give up.

Quote:

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Hi, Ant. Did you ever get your America running properly? What was the problem?

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Sadly I havn’t had a chance to get it back to the dealer or ride it a great deal since that service (damaged my shoulder in a non-bike related mishap). It has to go back in for the cush drive replacement so I’ll ask then. Still feels pretty odd though but hoping a few solid weeks of riding it again will either highlight the problem as an actual problem, or put it in the realms of ‘being spooked’ from the collision.

Will let you know what I find out though, weather is getting less icy and the shoulder is slowly starting to heal.

Tomy – all I can say (especially in regards to my recent adventures with the Scrambler) is that it appears reasonably easy to damage some of the ‘cogs’ (especially the ones on the far left of the case – see how technical I am). I wussed out and took it to a dealer and that was the right thing in my case (being a complete novice and having damaged it slightly but not enough to warrant a replacement).

But that single ‘click’ does sound similar to the problem I just had, and that was due to the far left one being out of alignment – more so when the case pushed against it.

Don't let the starter problem scare you away from working on your bike. The cush drive is a very easy straight forward job, perfect to get some confidence back.

Well, I got my bike back from the dealer. They said that they could find nothing wrong, and said I put the primary cover etc. all on right. It runs fine, so ??? Anyway, all's well that ends well, except out some $.

Did they take it apart and check? Maybe you had a loose connection somewhere and that was the click, Funny it would coincide with the cover removal though. Maybe when they took it apart and put it back together it was enough to align everything again.

Tom, I'm a little confused. Was the starter working when you took it to the dealer?

With the primary cover off, with my finger holding the idler gear shaft in place, the starter would spin the motor just fine. Also the starter, etc., was working fine before I removed the cover to replace the clutch springs.

The dealer said they did remove the cover and checked everything and did not find anything assembled wrong. When they put it back on, it worked.

But when it went to the dealer it wouldn't spin the engine fully assembled?

Sorry, I just edited my previous response while you were answering my post.

Got ya, like a previous post taking it apart and putting it back must have put something back in line that they didn't see while disassembling it. Something had to be binding.