Motorcycle Repair: 1984 Nighthawk 750 s, starter clutch, martin roach

Question
HI Bill,  I hope youe can help me.  I just bought a 1984 Honda Nighthawk 750s( I'm Canadian and am sure that you know that this is the same as the 700s sold in America).  The bike will not fire up.  The previous owner just put in new plugs and a battery this weekend.  It fired up when delivered.  When I tried a few hours later I met with failure.  I followed advice from another site and hooked it up to my car battery.  The engine would not turn over.  I then connected the positive cable to the starter cable.  I got all the fireworks without the engine turning over.  Where do I go from here?  I've read that it could be the starter clutch or starter gears.  If this is the case,  is this a job that someone who is not particularly mechanically inclined should attempt to tackle?

I'd appreciate any advice you could give me.

Thanks  

Martin Roach

Answer
Martin, that is unfortunate that the bike seized up right after delivery!
First, get one of the crankshaft covers off so you can put a wrench on the crank and see if it turns over. If the engine will rotate, then the starter drive seems to have jammed up for some reason.

Join
http://www.powersportspro.com/partsfish/login.asp
to view microfiche images of the starter and starter clutch parts. It seems to be a chain driven system and perhaps the clutch parts are seized up or the chain/tensioner broke that connects it all together

I found this link, but it wasn't too helpful:
http://members.aol.com/mojorisnn/nighthawk.html  took me to http://members.aol.com/mojorisnn/bikelinks.htmm but all of the links are dead!

If the starter clutch and/or chain are causing the problem, then the cases have to be split after the motor is pulled.... could get ugly both to your pocket and to repair....Probably not a job for a novice..   Hope you won't have to part it out on EBAY!

Bill Silver