Yamaha Raptor 250 Starter Problem

[Ankromsathome]

Purchased a 2008 Yamaha Raptor 250 for my son about 1 year ago and have been having problems with the starting system ever since.

Since owning for one year we have gone thru 2 starters and 2 starter gears. Now its spring 2019 and time for a third replacement. Am starting to think that we may have a more serious issue.

Upon replacing, the starter and starter gear, its starts fine, then after about 10 starts, you start to hear a bit of grinding. The grinding slowly gets worse until the teeth on the starter and the starter gear become trashed.

I've heard possible solutions from the starter clutch needing replaced to the casing for the starter gear shaft being out of spec?

I've also noticed that here is no difference or change if its in gear or not.

I just replaced the trans clutch as well.

Any suggestions?

 

[Frank Angerano]

The casing is what I was going to say.  It’s possible that it was a bad cast and the starter is slightly cocked. My best guess would be to do some research and see if there were any recalls or complaints about this happening as well as some remedy’s for it like a shim kit maybe ? 

This is just a guess. 

[Ajmboy]

I would agree, sounds like the starter is misaligned and getting chewed up. 

[joeyamaha]

I had the same problem on my daughter's 08. After several starters and clutch assembly and countless time. I put a washer under both bolts at the starter and it started better than ever. 

[Gwbarm]

I have run into this problem on several occasions, when you buy used you really don't know if the shims were lost during a previous starter install, more than likely they were, you might look at an exploded parts diagram and see if it lists them, iv run into yamaha parts diagrams before that didn't even list the shims but they were there. The other thing I have had problems with is aftermarket starters are not as exact as OEM, so you could try shimming for correct alignment, or get OEM parts.

[Mech]

Most yamahas have some way of letting the cdi know the starter is operating..  I suspect that is so it retards the timing a little to take the load off the starter..  It's the only explanation I can think of since they don't need it for a manual start, only when the electric start is being used.

I don't know about raptors..  But it might have that and it may be inoperative somehow..  wrong cdi or modified wiring..  if it has that system..