Isnt that the way?

I store my XJ in my brothers garage, frees up some winter space for me.

I went to ride it over to his place on sunday. leaving what i thought was a little early.

go to start, click only. DANG

quick check, relay is working starter is getting jucie battery is good. starter motor is bad.

as quickly as a i could i take it off and apart. pretty grimmy in there, noticed the brushes are a bit short but still there. just do a quick clean back together. go to start it. i get a good crank, it fires. but i wasnt ready for it choke wise and it died. and no second crank. sad panda.

tap it with a mallet and theres a littel life there. i didnt want to push start this thing, i doubt i could with no hills by me.

puller starter again, looked more closely. and one of the brush springs is broken putting no tension on that brush. well thats a problem right?

i quickly did some weak mcgyver and rigged up a compression spring in its place. not sure how long that would last but i only needed 1.

put it back in the bike and it cranked like a champ and this time i was ready and she was purring AOK. then it started to snow. and i rode it over there. but made it.

already ordered a rebuild kit. ill be curious to see if it cranks again come spring. if yes ill ride it home and fix it there. if no ill do it at his place.

but it was just bad timing and here i thought i was gonna be early.

 

went and got bike today. my bodge of a fix worked fine and it started easily. it might have been fun to leave it and see how long it would go. but I had the parts so I replaced the brush assembly