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Fitting an electric starter

Richard Pitman

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Total Posts
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Location
Worcester, England
Rod Fryatt posted this inspirational thread back at the old place, fitting an electric start to his CD175.

Fitting a starter motor to a UK CD175 ? | Honda Twins

Seems to me that the entire process is also applicable to the SL175. Only snag for me is that he is a precision worker ( clocks ? ) and I'm a bodger. Just wondering how desperate it would be if I got the 46mm hole slightly wrong ie bit too big, oval, not quite concentric ? Nothing that a bit of RTV or JB Weld couldn't sort ?

So long as the starter motor lined up correctly, oil leaks would be the only possible issue.
 
I wondered if Honda just put a thin skin over that area, and this picture from eBay confirms that you could get centered properly by starting from the inside.

sl175k0 uppercase.jpg
 
Rod stated that it was 5mm thick in his build thread. My reason for thinking about this is that only my CB175 starts easily on the kick starter. The other two both need a good spin on the electric start to get them going. Both those engines have decent compression and run strongly once going, so I don't think that its a case of them being worn out. The CB has its original Keihins, the other two are on the Wincycles / Chinese clone carbs, which probably has a bearing on the cold start issue.

Anyway, to get to the point, I'm wondering if this is why I couldn't get my rebuilt SL175 engine running, simply couldn't spin it hard enough on the kick starter.
 
Either way I think you could make this work pretty easily. Find the proper sized hole saw, fit it into the opening from the inside so you can get a good center mark, then drill the starter hole from the inside and finish by using the hole saw through the outside and try to avoid going through too far when it cuts through the aluminum "cover" so you don't scratch up the o-ring sealing surface inside. I had to use a light bead of Hondabond on the starter delete plug I bought from SpeedMotoCo for my 450 because the o-ring that came with the plug was just a bit too large and got nicked when I installed it the first time, and my replacement o-ring set didn't have an exact thickness equivalent so it seeped a bit.
 
Thanks. I've sourced a used but working starter motor, just need to find a reasonably price starter clutch, chain and sprockets. Another winter project, along with mounting the spare motor on a test stand.
 
Reason I'm thinking about doing this is that I want to keep the SL175 engine number with the bike, otherwise swapping the cases would be the simplest option. I'm currently running an electric start CB motor in this bike.
 
Just discovered during a search for parts that the CB250/350/360 use the same starter chain and small starter sprocket as the 175/200, probably the same starter motor as well. I'd better close this thread and continue in my SL175 project thread once I've made some progress with this idea.
 
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