Motorcycle Repair: 1981 Yamaha 750 Virago, 750 virago, yamaha virago 750

Question
Hi, and thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give me.  My Starter spins but will only engage ocassionally, but not enough to start the bike. The bike was starting when the starter would engage (It was always a noisy starter) but it got to this point now.    Bike is a 1981 750 Yamaha Virago.

Answer
Hi Ken....

Yeah... I was expecting this question to come sooner or later... the Yamaha Virago 750's were infamous for their starter problems. The problems have since been classified into three different areas. The area you are describing involves the mechanisms located between the starter and the drive gear. The best (and possibly only) solution is to replace all the stuff between the starter motorshaft and the final gear that the starter acts upon. The real culprit here is a spring clip that keeps tension on the starter gear... it starts to lose tension and the starter refuses to engage the gear. The fact that your starter is spinning tells us that the problem is between the starter and the final gear. I bet that noise you speak of sounds kinda like there's a metal marble spinning around in the crankcase? Hope this helps ya Ken... let us know if ya need more help!!

Jack