Tuesday 4 October 2011

How to remove a starter motor from a Yamaha R1

Here are pictures that I took when I removed the starter from my Yamaha R1. Removing the starter wasn't so easy. Even with the service manual. You know why? Because they left out a little piece of information and I'll give it to you: how to get that damn throttle body out, to be more specific, how to get to the screws on each of the 4 throttle body rubber hose clamps that fit on the intake manifold. The manual just shows an image of removing the 4 clamps... yeah.....how? I'll show you.

Even when the throttlebody was out, it was still not THAT easy to get the starter out. Wow! How am I going to get this starter out? I'll show you. If you have the tools, you can easily do this within an hour. I took much longer since I had to figure out how to get the clamps out. Anyway, here are the pictures of removing the Yamaha R1 starter motor:
The first thing to do is to remove the seat by using a 5mm Allen Wrench


Next is removing the R1's gas tank with a 5mm Allen wrench
Continuing for the tank removal, remove the side panel of tank with a Philips screw driver on each side of the tank
Still for the tank, remove the 5mm allen bolt on each side of tank in front side.
Lastly for the tank, the 5mm allen bolt at the tanks pivoting base under the seat, for now, just make it a little loose, so you can pivot the tank up and can remove the hoses and cable easily.
Now with the tank turned up, start by removing all hoses, this pic show the underside of the tank, I already removed the high pressure fuel line. Keep removing the other fuel lines and 2 cable connectors, when done, remove that 5mm allen pivoting bolt to remove the tank and put it aside.
Next to remove is the R1's air filter housing (air filter box). There are screws all along the side, and one hidden under the rubber that my finger points at. Just pull it out with pliers. There is one screw hidden there.
Remove that connector.
Now with the cover off of the air filter, and air filter removed. Remove the  allen bolts holding the velocity stacks and remove them.
Once velocity stacks are out, you can just take out the bottom of the air filter housing. This is where the real work starts!
But before you can remove the bottom of the air filter box, there are 2 hoses attached, one in the back and one in the front.
Next, remove the 2 hoses as shown here.
Remove this connector
Next, remove the throttle cable, there are 2. Just pull it back by hand, use a thin long angled plier to remove the cable.

Okay, all done and well. How do I get the throttle body out? Here's how:  a wrench with a 12" extension with a 5mm allen key at the end, removing the side panels (not mentioned in the service manual) Okay, I didn't take picture on how to remove the side fairings, but I guess you know that, it's easy. I just remove the top screws.

At first, following the service manual, I thought, man, how can I get these clamps out with a regular allen wrench?? Answer: impossible!!!

Here is one clamp shown with the allen bolt loosened, this is the easy one, from cylinder 3. Throttles from cylinder 1,2 and 3 can be done from the left side by entering your long extended wrench from where the fairings where. The one from the cylinder 4, the clamp is pointed to the right side, so you have to enter your long wrench from the right fairing side that you removed, and fiddle it under the radiator hose.
Once all the throttle body hose clamps are removed, you can pull it off, but carefull, as shown here, there are some more hoses to remove.
When all loosened, it will look like this. I didn't remove all the hoses and cables, a bit of a pain, this being in the way, but I didn't want to dissassemble the entire bike! I'm in enough shit already! :-) Now let's get to removing the starter, shall we?
Once you remove the rubber heat shield, you can see the starter and it's two bolts to remove. Once the two bolts are out, it is tricky to get the starter out, at first you gonna curse, it's like "how did they get that starter in here?" Answer: duh, it was already mounted on the engine when they mounted the engine to the frame, duh. Okay, so how do I get the starter out? That rubber heat shield, try your best to get it out of your way to the right, and there is one to the left as well. Then, once you removed the starter cable, hold that connector with pliers and wiggle the starter back and forth so it can disengage from the transmission. Then when the starter is loose, pull it to the right side as far as you possibly can until you see the spline from the starter. i was then able to pull the spline side up and get the starter out. Same way to get the starter back in, with back first.
The 2007 starter will fit the 2004/2005/2006 Yamaha R1.

Hope you liked my procedure with pictures to remove the Yamaha R1 Starter.
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43 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this.I was going to start doing this to my 04 r1 last weekend and said what the......and put it all back together.But now i think i will have a go at it!!BIG THANKS.

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    1. Was your starter draining your battery when you attempted to start?

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    2. I know mine sure is drawing a ton of power and draining it. Gonna tackle this today. Hope its the cause

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  2. You are welcome man! I hope by now you succeeded with it!

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  3. I can't seem to get the back starter bolt closest to the throttle body out...what did you utilize to get it out?? Losing motivation! PLEASE HELP

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  4. I used a small ratchet wrench. Trust me, I hardly have tools, you probably got more tools than I do. You can do it!

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  5. rafa@maltanet.net17 February 2012 at 01:51

    hi mate,,, i just took out my 2007/08 R1 motor cause ( i suspected) it was the culprit.changed battery, relays seem ok, battery drawing loads of current to start bike,, when it turns!! eventually wouldnt even turn. also tried car battery.

    anyway, your write-up was priceless. now i will re-assemble everything after i bought a second-hand SM. the original was jamming.what caused it ( if there was a secondary cause..) i still do not know why after just 6K miles!! otherwise the bike was perfect.

    may i ask: 1. is there any washer or anything between the SM and the crank body when you remove the SM?? or just that o-ring on the Sm body 2. anything in particular to watch out for when re-assembling e.g. SM, throttle bodies, velocity stack,,, etc?? ? 3. HOW, does the SM disengage after the bike starts?? thanks once again for your details and accurate description.

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    1. Hi mate, thanks. Did you see my previous post with the youtube video showing my old and newer starter, the difference was amazing. The culprit I think is, when you wash your bike with a pressure washer, if you spray on the engine part, all that water basically sits on top of the base of the motor where the starter motor is, and then you have the rubber flaps over it, leaving condensation, moisture in, and the starter starts to rust. That's one theory I have, could also be the brushes, but Yamaha wants a lot of money just for the brush set, it's better buying a second hand starter motor.

      Anyway, your questions:
      There is no washer between the starter motor, just the o-ring on the starter motor body, lubricate it slightly with motor oil so it slides in easy.
      Nothing particular to watch out for, in my case the steel throttle cable was a bit spliced when I put it back on the intake levers, watch out for that. Also, make sure the intake manifold sits well in the rubber hoses and tight them well, you will have to wiggle it a bit. In my case, i was not able to remove one clamp screw, I just pulled the manifold out.
      How the starter motor disengages after bike starts? that's easy, on the right side of the engine, behind the cover you have your alternator and in the back of that you have the starter clutch that only turns one way, it's a big sprocket, that is where your starter motor from the top connects to and engages the starter clutch. A starter clutch works like this, as the starter turns at high speed, little balls fly outwards against a wall of a cylinder and engage the entire cylinder. Once engine turns the little balls go inwards and disengages the sprocket. Good luck!

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  6. Thanks a lot

    You dont know how much i appreciate your tutorial....

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  7. awesome right up.. and yea its a pain.. at times i felt like puncturing the tank and tossing matches at it but patience is really needed... my first time took me almost 3 hrs, second time i had it out within 1 hr.. lol..

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  8. im looking for a coolant leak in this general area. do you have any additional pictures other than these? i dont care the quality much just as long as parts can be identified? need to egt this fixed asap!!!

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  9. Thanks for posting this!

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  10. here's a tip, you dont' have ot loosen the throttle bodies to pull them out, just rock them and pull them out.

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  11. LOL and mark which hose goes where that took me a while to figure out. I recemend useing painters tape and writing numbers ( 1 goes with 1, 2 goes with 2 and so on).

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  12. Also Make sure the starter motor is spinning the right way before you put the bike back together....Ya I did'nt and had to tear the bike back down again.....lol

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    Replies
    1. Hi, anonymous. My starter motor in spinning wrong way, how can I invert or change the spinning way? Thanks

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  13. This is the best tutorial one can ever have. For sure its priceless and a clear cut of a 'one time' explanation. I own a car wash and use the water pressure washer almost every weekend to wash the bike and the starter eventually seized from several warnings. Thanks...... Joe ( Zambia )

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  14. i think is only one way to sit the starter right, what do mean anonymous spinning the right direction,,,,it is necessary to take the trothle cable out? i need to rebuild mine i dont want to take it to the shop so i want to try and do it myself,,hope i cant get it out ,,not much tools either

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    1. You don't have to take the throttle cable out, yuo do however have to remove the throttle body! Starter is right under there!

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  15. Thank you!!! I didn't need to replace the starter but needed to install a motion pro throttle kit and was falling miserably. The lower cable was kicking my ass for hours. I finally bought the extension and long allen socket you described and voila!!! By the way the throttle body boot clamp bolts are 4mm not 5mm. Thanks, Ruben

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    1. Hi Ruben, that's awesome! Thanks for writing me, it gives me great pleasure. This week, I am actually going through the entire routine again, I had to replace the starter brushes, in other words, from the moment of this post up till now is how long they lasted (about 3 years). The ratchet extension surely makes it easy. Enjoy your ride!

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  16. Thanks for the HOWTO:

    Yes, this was a bitch to do but all fixed up now & on a 08 starter to boot... Many high 5's

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  17. I had a friend help me and I had to put it back together myself. I have 5 hoses left and only 4 ports I cant figure out where they all go. I know the two from fuel rail go to pump. but the other 3 I don't know.

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    1. Are you taling about the fuel hoses coming from the fuel tank? Check the sticker on the air filter houding, it shows the routing of those hoses

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  18. Oh wow, that sure is really cool how the author provided pictures as a step by step process into removing a starter motor from a Yamaha R1. It sure looks pretty to do but I'm sure it would quite difficult to do it on your own. But yet, this is something that I can always try to do by myself.

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  19. The Starter on my 04 died. I noticed you put an 07 on your 05, did you have any fitting issues? Are the 04-06 compatible with the 07-08?

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  20. Hello, yes, it works, there was only a slight difference at the position of where the cable is connected on the starter body, I used my old cable, that's it. It's a perfect fit.

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  21. how do you remove the throttle cables on the throttle body? Can you explain it again? I'm stuck on that part. also do you have to loosen all the screws because each cylinder has 2 screws to tighten them?

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  22. Hi, it's pretty easy, just pull back the spring part, then you will see that there is a slit in that metal, so with pliers you can clamp on the cable, and guide the endball of the cable out through that slit. Let me know how it goes

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  23. Each cylinder comes with 2 screws.. I can only get to 1 screw each on cylinder 3 and 4. Its too hard to get to the second screw.. Do you need to loosen the other screw?

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  24. When you put the throttle bodies back on did you use anything to make sure they were properly sealed to the engine or you just snugged up the clamps and thats all?

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  25. So can you put and 04-06 on and 07 r1

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  26. So can you put and 04-06 on and 07 r1

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  27. You don't even have to take the throttle body's off. I did it without take the throttle body off.

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  28. IQuick Question...I only need to get to the Starter Relay/Solenoid. Do you have an Idea of where that's at?

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    1. Yes, it's right under the seat, you will one fat cable from the battery going to it, to a connector with a big nut

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  29. look at the 5th picture of this post, on the right side of the pic.

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  30. You guys are awsome!! I will be attempting to replace my 2005 yamaha r1 starter tomorrow.

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  31. What yr model starter can fit for a 2003 r1 cause I cant find an 03 starter no where?

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  32. I replaced the starter on my bike, and after I got everything back together and started it up, the bike wouldn't idle unless I gave it some throttle and it would puff black smoke out the exhaust like it was running rich. What did I do wrong? Please help

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