strange noise on starting.

[jazerr]

Had a wierd thing happen this morning and I want to know if I should be concerned.

My bike is a daily commuter. There were only a few days in the last year that I didnt ride, and even then it was only because it was raining.

SO, last week I did an oil change. Third since I've had it. I decided to give the synthetic stuff a shot. Thats the only thing I've changed.

This morning when I hit the started, it bit, started to turn over (it was cold), turn turn, CRACK! like metal slamming against metal, inside the motor. Almost like something snapped in half. It was LOUD.

So I let off the starter, stood there a minute, and tried again, to see if something inside had spun off, and it fired up fine, idled fine, rode to work fine. When I got here, I killed it and started up again just to see.

WTF did I do? Should I be concerned? I know its time for a valve adjustment as I can hear the faint ticking.

[The Buddha]

Replace your starter clutch now ... before you get goats ... or srinaths ... or the worst of that series ... starwalts. Though, starwalts is rather convoluted ... you're definetly looking at srinath's I'd say. Do ~10 K on it and then open up the left side ... can you say metal enchilada.
Cool.
Srinath.

[pbureau69]

humm I got that sound about a week ago I though it shounded like a loud spark noise myself, but you describe it pretty accuratly.. it hasnt redone it since...

replace the starter clutch...humm, Ill get the dealer look at it... I have had no issues since I got that noise (bike has 15k miles on it)..

[CndnMax]

sounds liek the sound i heard when bump starting the bike with the kill switch on off   

[jazerr]

Replace your starter clutch now ... before you get goats ... or srinaths ... or the worst of that series ... starwalts. Though, starwalts is rather convoluted ... you're definetly looking at srinath's I'd say. Do ~10 K on it and then open up the left side ... can you say metal enchilada.
Cool.
Srinath.

What in the earth?!?!?!

[VSG]

Replace your starter clutch now ... before you get goats ... or srinaths ... or the worst of that series ... starwalts. Though, starwalts is rather convoluted ... you're definetly looking at srinath's I'd say. Do ~10 K on it and then open up the left side ... can you say metal enchilada.
Cool.
Srinath.

All I got out of that was "replace your starter clutch"..... 

[manofthefield]

I understood mostly... maybe I speak Srinath better than I thought   Some of that just comes from being around for a while and knowing what the heck he's referring to

Goat's disease, Srinath's disease, and Starwalt's disease (all named after the users who first had these problems) are varying levels of the same thing: the alternator magnets exploding inside the left crankcase cover.  I'm not sure on my details here, but I believe one of the causes is the starter clutch impacting the magnets and tearing them apart. 

[The Buddha]

Yup ... sledge hammer blow to the inside of your starter engagement gear causes the rotor fitted to aforementioned starter engagement gear to shatter. Very very pretty. AKA - srinaths.
Now goats is where rotor and stator come in contact with each other for no reason and self destruct.
Starwalts is where a small fragment of the rotor get into the starter clutch locking it up and there fore taking the starter with it for a 100,000 rpm ride.
There is also Cheesy's - where a light crash causes a crack in the case ... just enough to be fixed with JB weld, but plenty to cause stator and rotor to clobber each other.
Cool.
Srinath.

[ohgood]

any boo-bas or tatas ?

[ben2go]

Yup ... sledge hammer blow to the inside of your starter engagement gear causes the rotor fitted to aforementioned starter engagement gear to shatter. Very very pretty. AKA - srinaths.
Now goats is where rotor and stator come in contact with each other for no reason and self destruct.
Starwalts is where a small fragment of the rotor get into the starter clutch locking it up and there fore taking the starter with it for a 100,000 rpm ride.
There is also Cheesy's - where a light crash causes a crack in the case ... just enough to be fixed with JB weld, but plenty to cause stator and rotor to clobber each other.
Cool.
Srinath.

Any prevenative maintence for this problem? 

[dgyver]

...
There is also Cheesy's - where a light crash causes a crack in the case ... just enough to be fixed with JB weld, but plenty to cause stator and rotor to clobber each other.
...

I have a case cover from a running bike (Meighan's) that the stator mounting boss is partially broken loose. It had been down once and had the typical grind, nothing more than normally seen. It was only replaced for cosmetic reasons. Kind of scary that this could happen.

[VSG]

Yup ... sledge hammer blow to the inside of your starter engagement gear causes the rotor fitted to aforementioned starter engagement gear to shatter. Very very pretty. AKA - srinaths.
Now goats is where rotor and stator come in contact with each other for no reason and self destruct.
Starwalts is where a small fragment of the rotor get into the starter clutch locking it up and there fore taking the starter with it for a 100,000 rpm ride.
There is also Cheesy's - where a light crash causes a crack in the case ... just enough to be fixed with JB weld, but plenty to cause stator and rotor to clobber each other.
Cool.
Srinath.

Can anything bad happen besides locking up the starter clutch?  Would it damage other parts of the engine?

I suppose I could flipt through the repair manual to see what everything is connected to, but a quick answer here is easier