A problem for some Road Star owners is that the stock starter motor can get a little tired with the passing of time. This results in difficulty getting the engine to turn over, particularly if it hasn’t been fired up for a little while or it sits in cold weather. The problem can lead to batteries being drained prematurely, possible damage to the starter relay and the risk of the stator bolt coming loose. This is especially the case when high compression or big bore pistons are installed.
One cure for this problem is to replace it with a Warrior starter motor, which is also a direct bolt on for all non Warrior Road Stars. To be fair, there is a way to assist the stock starter with more juice which is to upgrade the starter wire to a heavier gauge although that process takes a lot longer than the ten minutes that outright replacing the starter does (although is much cheaper).
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RoadStarMagazine.com accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of these Garage Tips and they are only provided as a resource reference. Any type of modification or service work on your Road Star should always be performed by a professional mechanic. If performed incorrectly, some of these Garage Tips may endanger the safety of you and others on your Road Star and possibly invalidate your manufacturers warranty. The majority of these Garage Tips are not official manufacturers instructions and have been accumulated by Road Star enthusiasts from around the world.
This process describes replacing your stock Road Star starter with a Road Star Warrior Starter. Please note the Warrior Starter only comes in black and if you have the Yamaha Starter Cover it will no longer fit. Otherwise this mod is compatible with all years and takes literally ten minutes to do.
Written by RoadStarMagazine.com
Instructions
Tools required:
10mm wrench
5mm Allen Key
Optional (but recomended): Some Loctite – page 7-23 of the Road Star workshop manual
| First remove the black rubber cap on your existing starter and undo the top bolt holding down the starter wire. | |
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| Undo the two 5mm Allen bolts attaching the Starter to the engine. Gently finesse the starter out by pulling straight backwards. | |
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| Carefully put the Warrior starter in its place, rotate slightly back and forth to get the gears to mesh. | |
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| Apply a little Loctite to each bolt – as they only require 5.1ft/lbs of torque – and bolt the starter to the engine. | |
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| Reattach the starter wire and ensure the black rubber cap is properly sealing the bolts. | |
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Finished!
