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If I had it to do again, I would have done a couple of things differently. I'm hoping whoever reads this can do it better than I did.

(1) Drill the hole for the zerk about a millimeter farther away from the body of the starter (just a hair closer the end of it) to facilitate easier connection with a grease gun. As it is there's just barely enough room for the tip of the gun between the two. But no more than a millimeter or two.

If I had done this I would not have even needed to drill all the way through the bushing. The center of the drill bit would have passed through the housing far enough away from the bushing that grease would flow right into the chamber.

The hole I drilled passed clear though the bushing and took out some of the surface area. I don't think it will be an issue, but I would have liked to leave as much there as possible. You can see this a little bit in one of the photos.

Be careful of the angle you install it at. I marked the spot before I took anything apart. It would have been a real bummer if I had done all this only to realize that I couldn't get a gun on it because the timing chain tensioner was in the way! The two best places for it are either right under the 'S' or the 'M' in the 'Mitsuba' on the casting.

So I guess that's only one thing I would have done differently

Very cool squawk reducing mod. Thanks for sharing!

Great mod...added to my list.

excellent idea! I have to find the thread pitch/diameter so I can actually fit a zerk to that, along with my steering neck and swingarm pivot points.

The latter two are just logical ideas to me to ease maintenance and enhance longevity of said bearings.

Yeah, but if you pump very much grease in there at all (over the years) it will squish out right into the brushes.

That just means that you will need to disassemble it all sometime down the road to clean out the excess grease.

Do they make a sealed roller bearing replacement for the end bushing? That would be ideal.

It would be great if you guys could bring out a replacement bearing that doesn't wear out so quick like the stock one does. Mine is so bad that the starter squawks even in warm temperatures so I'd definitely buy one.

Really clever solution. As far as grease over time, what about a smaller hole/method of hitting it with an occasional shot of silicon spray?

That would be the ticket right there. I'm sure somebody out there makes a nice needle bearing with matching dimensions that would be a direct replacement for the bushing. Never occurred to me to look for one.


Sheesh Captain BuzzKill I suppose you're right about that.
But the object of this little mod is only to increase the service interval, it's not a forever thing.

Maybe greased brushes last longer?


That might be yet an even better way to go about it. Something like an itty bitty hole tapped for a button head allen screw(or something) to plug it up to keep water and dirt out? Try it out, and be sure and take pics of the process for us!

i thought of doing something similar. now i think i will! good job!

get a 90degree zerk fitting angled away from the tensioner and problem solved.

good stuff!