starter removal on X1?

The Pull start is off and broken (I have a new one), but the pawl is broken inside the starter. Now what? How do I remove the starter?

The pawl is bolted to the outside of the starter armature[pic below].....Its either a rectangular box shape or a round disc and is removed with the screw in the center by spinning the whole pawl and holding the engine still with a piston stop tool......If your pawl bolt is broken in the crank flush with the outside your in a bit of sheet on that one because the armature is threaded on the inside and gets pressed off with a fine threaded screw about 3" long after the pawl attachment bolt gets removed from the crank.......The armature is pressed onto the crank and if you pry on it youll bend the crankshaft making repairs futile....after you remove the e-starter you could shim and bolt the pullstarter direct to the engine to save some rotating mass weight.........Good Luck........Peace

Thanks, it is broken off inside the armiture... I can see it. Do I need a new engine? Is the bike garbage?

Can you explain the pressed on part more to me? What tool do I need to remove the armiture from the crank?

You dont need a new engine...youre gonna have to get it off the very long and hard way....How far down into the armature is the bolt broken off?...If its like 1" you might have enough threads in the armature to thread the larger fine thread bolt into and use the broken bolt to press the armature off the shaft............

If the bolt is broken flush or where you cannot thread the fine thread bolt into it youre gonna have to use a 3 prong puller and a piece of screw to remove the armature......after that you will need a short pawl bolt and you can just bolt the pawl direct to the shaft and bolt the pullstarter with shims direct to the engine and do away with the e-starter and troublesome electrical accessories althogether.....

heres a generalization of what I mean by pressed-on in the vid below...the kid took his apart with a 3 jaw puller on a 36cc e-start engine...The e-starter systems are generally the same ...the vid sux but you can get a general idea on what it looks like...Whats funny is he didnt even realize the pullstarter works in place of the e starter body with a thin aluminum shim to space it properly......

YouTube - Youtube request: Removing e-start off of a 36cc engine

There is a steel bell looking thing that has a threaded shaft that goes through the armiture. That is what is broken inside. The bolt ON the armiture is in tact, and I have a threaded bolt to pull the armiture off with- though it is only 2.5". Will that work? I am not sure how to rez down the image on this mac... I may try photobucket in a moment.

I think 2.5" will work it just as good to pop it off.....Photobucket would be the best route if you cannot re-edit and save the pics in jpeg format...to do that you right click the file ,right click the picture and click edit,scroll up to file,click save as and in the file scroll down box pick "jpeg" and then save.....there will be a new file saved in your cpu in jpeg file...

I got the starter off, thank you for the tips. I have been trying to start with a drill now that I have removed all of the broken parts. I have spark, no pop. The plug is wet when I pull it. Not sure what to try next... I have adjusted the mixture screws (both 2.25 turns out?), and removed and cleaned out the carb. Someone posted on here that the spark could be weak? It appears to be good... it will jump from the plug to the frame about .25" then stops. I also understand that I need to pull in the brake when cranking. What am I missing?

You have the mixture screws out too much...Top screw is 1-1/8 - 1-1/4 turns out and the side screw is 1-1/4-1-1/2 turns out for factory or close to factory settings....

You only need the brakehandle to e-start it.To pullstart it you just pull..You also need to pump the primer bulb and set the choke..

Try removing the plug and pullstarting it to evacuate the fuel build-up and stick in a fresh plug in the engine and give it ab try and see if it will run...If not you may have a rusty flywheel magnet plus coil pick-up or you have a weak coil in need of replacing....another thing that happens is the wiring becomes fried and melts together at the harness wires coming from the coil and will cause the coil to ground and not spark right...If its melted;-pull them apart and tape them up seperate..


If you get the bolt out of the crank you can use the round pawl and a short screw and bolt the pawl direct to the shaft end...Then you can bolt the pullstarter direct to the engine case possibly with the aid of thin washers and sealed with RTV or buying a thin aluminum pullstarter housing shim from scooterparts4less.................Peace

Awesome, thank you so much. I assume the washers are for bringing the pull start assy away from the case enough for correct engagement. Makes sense. I will re-set the carb, attach the pull starter, check the coil pick up for rust,
With the starter off- I will need to re-charge the battery, correct? I have been using a drill to turn this thing over... is that a bad idea?

I will look for the wires on the coil...

With the starter/alternator combo off the engine you might aswell ditch all the electrics because thats alls the battery is for....The engine doesnt need the battery to generate spark...thats the magneto/picku coils job....

Success!! As soon as I shimmed to Pull start, mounted it, gave a couple pulls and BANG. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much. Now just a couple more questions:

What trans. fluid should I use? I would like to service the unit and have no idea what or how much to put in.

What is the preferred NGK plug? I THINK it is a 43cc bike based on the tranny I have. Not sure how to tell.

I am a big dude... should I buy a Heavy Duty clutch? It seems to pull pretty good as it is...

Nice Job man..Im glad to hear things are working out for you....For the piston ported engines there really isnt a heavy duty clutch as per say...all the pads are bonded to the shoes so when they heat up badly they can unbond like the rest...Im 195lbs and I havent really had a problem with the clutches too much in all my bikes other than a spring change every once in awhile when they weaken..The pads last pretty long

I had a bunch of X-1's and a couple X-2's and if your bike has the CVT its most likely a 49cc and comes with the muffler pipe in the last picture but if you want to verify......Straydawg has a nifty way to measure the cylinder using a tywrap as a gauge to measure by going through either the carb port with carb and intake removed or through the exhaust port with the exhaust pipe removed...The X-1's with the chain-driven reduction box like the 3 in the top pics are mostly 43cc with a skinny pipe going to a silencer without an expansion chamber and very few are true 49cc's but with a few mods and a cylinder squish reset by milling the engine case cylinder flange the 43cc engines scream just as hard and go just as fast if not faster than a 49cc X-2..A stock 43cc X-1 will go 18-22 mph out of the box and after break-in and the slack removed from the throttle cable at the barrel adjuster at the carb top to give the bike the ability to have wide open throttle it will go a whopping 25-28mph...Mine go over 35

The oiling chamber in the CVT is just for a couple of roller bearings behind the belt case between the beltcase and the clutchbell and only requires 100cc's of light duty oil.Same for the X-1 chain-driven transmissions except theres 2 places to add lube to...I squirt chain lube with white graphite down mine to lube the chain and bearings..


The preferred plug is either the NGK BM6A or the E3 plug works good too.........Peace