Kudos to Max Kirby

Quote:

Thought members might like to know what has happened with my bike after the starter spindle broke its housing collars on both crank case and clutch cover.
I took the cover to show my local Triumph dealer who were familiar with the problem. They had recently repaired a Speedmaster for $1800 in labor, Triumph paid for the parts. I talked to Triumph about goodwill help given this is a design problem, their response was that as I was the 3rd owner, had no maintenance records and it's 5 years old any help was unlikely but didn't rule it out. A new crank case was going to be $3400.
I removed the starter, gear and spindle, found the broken parts in the sump and thought about what could be done. The aluminum seemed too thin and porous to weld but I noticed the spindle was hollow - 15/64" according to my mic....so why not try and pin the spindle in place? I took the bike to a machinist, had them bore a hole in the crankcase and the new cover ($330 for a cover I was told had been beefed up as a result of these problems but wasn't any different to the original one, slightly smaller than the new pin. The pin is a turned down grade 8 hardened steel bolt that fits the spindle exactly and had to be lightly tapped in place. Anyway, after getting everything back in place, new gaskets, oil etc., pressed the starter buttom and she fired up as she's supposed to. Road her around a while see if there were any leaks, stopped and started a number of time see if all was good....and fingers crossed she seems to be holding up. Time will tell if this is a permanent fix.



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The Triumph Starter5


Spindle


Spindle2


The Spindle