GT550 Starter clutch replacement

[AndyF]

Don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but the info may be of use to someone.
I recently sold my 550, the electric start was always hit and miss, it would spin momentarily, then slip. The engine might start if youre lucky, but mostly not. I wasn't too fussed about it as all my other bikes are kickstart only.
The new owner asked me if i'd mind looking into it as his wife would ride it if the electric start worked.
I had a look on the repair forum, found the suzuki service bulliten regarding the change to the borg-warner type clutch., pulled the clutch basket off the bike and found I had the later type starter clutch.
Both the inner and outer bearing surfaces looked fine, no sign of wear anywhere, so I concluded that I needed a new clutch bearing.
I rang Mick Hone Suzuki in Melbourne, their spares man told me that the part number (12650-34020) didn't appear in their system.
Partzilla showed the part in their listings but showed it as "unavailable".
In a last ditch effort, I took it to my local bearing shop where the guy said he'd have a look around.
Two days later he rings me and tells me that it's a bog standard NSK part and he found 250 of them in a warehouse in Singapore.
The upshot was that a week later I had the part, (lightened my wallet to the tune of $132.00 Aus), fitted to the bike, starter works perfectly, new owner is delighted (and pays me). Everybody is happy.
The info for anyone who needs/or wants to know is as follows.

NSK part N0 : BW13231, Clutch Bearing I.D. 54.77mm (2.1563Inch), O.D. 71.44mm (2.8125Inch), Width 13.5mm (0.5315 Inch)

[Alan H]

I picked this up too, but a long 'google' search didn't find any matches.

[GTandcbr]

Thankyou very much for posting. I have indeed be having the same problem for years!

[AndyF]

Gtand cbr,....I'm probably telling you what you already know, but just in case,
if your GT550J is standard, it will have the old style starter clutch comprising three (approximately) 12mm rollers sitting in the back of the clutch with spring loaded plungers pushing on them.
The "borg-warner type replaced it in August 1975 because it wasn't much good. I had a 'J" in 1974 and even nearly new , the starter was not much good. See service bulletinn GT-26, found elsewhere on this forum.
Repair kits for this type are, however, readily available as the GT750 used it for its entire production run and also some subsequent GSX models.
If you were to go to Ebay and type "suzuki 141724877518" or "suzuki GT750 starter clutch", you will be able to get what you need.

cheers, Andy

[GTandcbr]

Thanks Andy. I updated to a Borg Warner 20 years ago as the engineering is far superior. But did you know there are 2 sizes of Borg Warner starter clutch bearing fitted to the GT550 ? The smaller one was 13.5mm and the larger was 15.7mm.

[Alan H]

I've had a couple of the early type starter clutches, first one on a 550J in August 1972 when the 550 first appeared. It went to Eddie Crooks 7 weeks later for a 4000 mile service and they recommended to take the clutch off, remove the 3 countersunk studs holding the rollers etc. in and refit them with loctite and a 'tap' on the threads so they can't escape. That was the main cause of the problems - and low gearbox oil level, of course.
The 550K I restored a few years ago had the early clutch and never had an issue - and as the same type of starter clutch is on the 750s there's little amiss with the design.
Crooks were racing a 550 in the production class then, and I had simar 'upgrades' done to my 550. I had that until 1976 or so, still with the original starter in.