GL1000/1100 starter motor difference

[Sidecar Bob]

I was out running errands yesterday when the starter motor failed. Click and dim lights so I was sure power was getting to it but it wouldn't turn for some reason. A couple of guys pushed and it started in a few feet.

I'm in the shop now. The bearing on the brush end of the shaft was seized in the bearing and the shaft is galled so this one is done (a replacement will be ordered shortly after I finish posting this).

Recently in another thread Old Fogey said "1100 starter will fit the 1000; the 1000 starter will not fit the 1100" and I figured this was a good time to investigate why.
The short answer is almost too simple: the 1100 starter motor is about 3mm shorter.

BUT that's not all there is to it.
I know when I had the 1000 engine in this '83 bike I had to remove the rearmost exhaust stud to get the starter motor out and remove it by turning it just right so that the brush end of the starter could swing outward and put the splined shaft of the starter into the opening where the sprocket is before the brush end would go into the space.
I can't get that stud to budge on this 1100 engine and I was surprised to find that I could get the splined shaft out of the opening first and remove the starter with the stud in place.

Here's where it gets confusing: I held a 1000 starter motor next to it and it looks like that might be possible to put a 1000 starter into the engine splines first if I could get that stud out (like I always had to do with the 1000 engine).

Of course, this is an 1100 frame so it might be different in a 1000 frame.....

[BlueThunder]

I don't know about the 1100... but I can remove the 1000 starter out of a 1000 motor without removing the exhaust stud.

[Sidecar Bob]

I don't remember ever removing the starter motor when the 1000 engine was in the '77 1000. I did remove it a bunch of times over the 21 years I had the 1000 engine in the '83 1100 and there was no way it would come out without removing that stud. Like I said, maybe it has to do with the 1100 frame.

BTW, I cobbled a starter together with the brush plate from the original one and the rest from the Caltric one I thought I killed when the carb to plenum seals went bad (long story) and it started faster than it has all summer.
But I ordered a new one anyway.

[NotSoLilCrippseys]

That's ingenuity: "I cobbled a starter together... and it started faster than it has all summer."

This won't help much, I'm sure, but FWIW.

When I was trying to pull the starter on the 79 Wing and a Prayer project, I could NOT get it out with the header on - or at least without removing a stud or two. I tried for about 30 minutes, thinking perhaps a Rubik's Cube series of twists, tweaks, and a grunt - as well as another trip to the NGWClub forums - might do it. Nope.

I needed to pull the headers anyway, so I pulled the whole exhaust to remove the starter.

The starter I pulled is an aftermarket unit. I just did a quick comparison with the GL1100 starter on the Blue Phoenix. I don't see the 3mm difference. Maybe both are aftermarkets and longer than stock?

[Sidecar Bob]

The one I fixed is a Caltric (aftermarket) that was sold as fitting 1000 and 1100 so it is 1100 spec. It is the same length as the original 1100 starter. Both of the original 1000 starter motors I have are 3mm longer.
I think the holes in the block are in the same places on both engines but for some reason the mounting hole in the brush end of the original 1100 starter and the 1100 spec Caltric are elongated while the one on the 1000 starter is round.

I think it might be possible to get the starter motor out without removing the header if you supported the engine and removed the subframe but I haven't tried that.

Mine has had separate left & right exhaust systems since I put it together in '97 so I sometimes forget they aren't all like that

[Sidecar Bob]

Infopic (elongated hole)

Starter motors GL1000 vs GL1100.jpg (81.88 KiB) Viewed 136 times