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250/300 E-starter

13K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  bobfromfreo  
#1 ·
Guys, I hope I’m not wearing out my welcome here. It seems the electric starter on the 250/300 bikes is notoriously unreliable. When we bought my sons bike, it was not working, not even hooked up to a battery. I put in a new relay, new battery, and fired it up and it was nothing but metal on metal. Pulled it apart saw that the bushings for the Bendix were worn out and replaced them with OEM. Now it’s not metal on metal, but it still won’t start the bike even though it will start on the kick first try. Some seem to think upgrading to XRC bronze bushings is a huge upgrade, others recommend the 420W starter. Just curious if you guys have thoughts on where I should be starting to get more reliable performance. Thanks as always guys.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Just wanted to follow up and let you know that I took everything apart, cleaned everything up real nice, put in a new 410W starter (cheap one) and replacement XRC brass bushings from Tokyo Offroad and bathed everything in PB Blaster general purpose lube. Dropped in a Featherweight Li Battery and it fired up beautifully. So, I'm guessing the starter will fail at some point as you've said but I'm hoping the brass bushings will keep everything lined up better and make the system more reliable. Just wanted to share the learning ... thanks again guys.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Yep - will do Augie. For now ...

Starter - 410W Arrowhead SMU0525 SM-16 (~$40 on Ebay)
Battery - Firepower Featherweight Lithium Model 490-2528 - 180 cold cranking amps ($100 Slavens)
Bushings - Four XRC brass replacement bushings (two each for bendix and crown wheel) from Tokyo Offroad (about $40)