Small engine maintenance

I got a call from Momma this morning. Her lawnmower wouldn't start. I poured a go-cup of coffee and headed that way. She had recently bought and installed a new battery. Turns out, the battery wasn't charged. I put a charger on it. She is going to mow this afternoon.

Then I came home and put the Goldwing in a place where I can work on it. Sometime in April, I got on it to go to work. When I engaged the starter, it made a half-tun and stopped with a decided Clunk! The Goldwing engine is legendary for reliability, especially the 1500 version that I drive. There are a couple of million out there being driven every day. It was built from 1988 to 1999 and it set records for durability. Mine has well over 100,000 miles on it. I changed the timing belts at 60,000 miles. That ominous Clunk! sounded like a timing belt had snapped, locking the engine.

I took off the front lower fairing and disassembled the bike enough to get to the timing cover. When I took the cover off, I noticed that the timing belts looked good, so I engaged the driveshaft with a socket wrench and turned the engine through several revolutions. It turns just fine and the engine is still in time. I am considerably relieved. I still don't know what the problem was back in April, but I know what it's not and that's half the answer. If the timing belt had broken while the engine was turning, valves would have met pistons with disastrous results.

While I have it torn down this far, I'll go ahead and put new timing belts on it. Later today or tomorrow morning I'll drive over to the best Goldwing mechanic in the area and ask his opinion. I'm thinking the starter has died on me, but Wayne will be able to give me some pointers.