Alton starter motor

nortonmews · Thursday at 3:49 AM

Hi

I have just purchased a replacement Alton Starter motor from Andover Norton which was supplied complete with the alloy bearing housing which fits to the gear train on the inner chain case. This a shrink fit (? no visible fittings) - has anyone had to remove this? Will I just need a heat gun?
Plan B was to just use the old bearing housing but the starter motor shafts are different diameters

so the new starter motor does not fit the old bearing
I have spoken to AN who suggested i contact Alton directly but no response yet

cliffa · Thursday at 4:21 AM

nortonmews said:
Hi

I have just purchased a replacement Alton Starter motor from Andover Norton which was supplied complete with the alloy bearing housing which fits to the gear train on the inner chain case. This a shrink fit (? no visible fittings) - has anyone had to remove this? Will I just need a heat gun?
Plan B was to just use the old bearing housing but the starter motor shafts are different diameters so the new starter motor does not fit the old bearing
I have spoken to AN who suggested i contact Alton directly but no response yet

Why not give them a call?

nortonmews · Thursday at 4:42 AM

That would have been my next step - I have just received a response from Laurent to my follow up e-mail so should now be good

Once I’ve done it I’ll add details here because it is not intuitive
Thanks

phippsy · Thursday at 9:32 AM

To add salt to your wound when my Alton I needed a starter motor , I got it re built , for a fraction of the cost of a new one . And I swear it’s never worked so well .

toppy · Thursday at 10:56 PM

Under the Alton name badge on the inner chain case there is a hidden screw that retains the motor.
I carefully peeled the badge off and stuck it back on with super glue.

nortonmews · Friday at 12:56 AM

I have now heard back from Alton so now have to get stuck in.
The full process involves fully dismantling the primary drive to remove the gear train from the rear of the primary chain case

. Splitting the gear train housing by removing the hidden Allen bolt under the Alton sticker to reveal three Allen bolts that screw into the bearings housing. What a pain!!!!
I have previously replaced the starter motor by just undoing the two through bolts and leaving the bearing housing attached to the gear train.
WARNING - if you do it this way check the diameter of the starter motor shafts as they seem to have changed / vary. I was going to do it this way but only discovered the difference in size as my new starter motor had the larger diameter shaft so didnt fit the bearing.
I may try to just change the bearings over rather than dismantle the primary drive - which I have only just assembled whilst getting the starter motor

dobba99 · Friday at 1:05 AM

phippsy said:
To add salt to your wound when my Alton I needed a starter motor , I got it re built , for a fraction of the cost of a new one . And I swear it’s never worked so well .

Do you know what make and model of starter Alton used as the basis of their conversion? I have 50% of the bits of an alton kit (bought at an auction) and half the starter motor is missing.

baz · Friday at 3:45 AM

phippsy said:
To add salt to your wound when my Alton I needed a starter motor , I got it re built , for a fraction of the cost of a new one . And I swear it’s never worked so well .

Where did you get it rebuilt?

phippsy · Friday at 9:56 AM

baz said:
Where did you get it rebuilt?

Robson & Francis rewinds cost £160 more then I thought it was but best it’s ever been

seattle##gs · Friday at 10:24 AM

dobba99 said:
Do you know what make and model of starter Alton used as the basis of their conversion? I have 50% of the bits of an alton kit (bought at an auction) and half the starter motor is missing.

I have an Alton starter motor That was removed from a customer's bike maybe 5 years ago. Everything is there and I'm sure it's a working unit. Free for the shipping. I'm in the U.S. , however. If dobba doesn't want it, anyone else?

dobba99 · Friday at 1:11 PM

That would be great, how do you want payment for postage? I usually use paypal

cliffa · Friday at 4:13 PM

phippsy said:
Robson & Francis rewinds cost £160 more then I thought it was but best it’s ever been

So what did you think it was?

phippsy · Friday at 11:28 PM

cliffa said:
So what did you think it was?

Just remembered the £60 of it, but new starters from Andover Norton are retailing at £468 excluding VAT & postage so a rebuild is less then a third of a new starter .

cliffa · 2026-08-02T13:31:29-0600

phippsy said:
Just remembered the £60 of it, but new starters from Andover Norton are retailing at £468 excluding VAT & postage so a rebuild is less then a third of a new starter .

Sorry, maybe I'm being dumb (and not for the first time) So it was £220 in total?

phippsy · 2026-08-03T09:10:22-0600

cliffa said:
Sorry, maybe I'm being dumb (and not for the first time) So it was £220 in total?

£160 all in including postage & VAT

cliffa · 2026-08-03T10:59:10-0600

phippsy said:
£160 all in including postage & VAT

That’s pretty good then if you take into account the performance improvement and the comparison to an oem replacement.

I would really like to get the alternator rewound on mine, as the charging is very marginal below about 3k rpm.

dobba99 · 2026-08-03T11:09:14-0600

cliffa said:
That’s pretty good then if you take into account the performance improvement and the comparison to an oem replacement.

I would really like to get the alternator rewound on mine, as the charging is very marginal below about 3k rpm.

I have repaired a couple of Alton stators (after the solid wire fly leads have broken necessitating a rewind)
Each coil on the alton stator has a meter of wire wrapped around it. Rewinding and keeping the coil diameter the same took a few attempts. I know there is more space between the coils that could be used for more turns but the coils will then be fatter and will probably interfere with the starter chain. If you can get more turns on each coil, but, not increase the overall width of the stator, rewinding, for more output, might work. How much space is there between the starter chain and the stator?

cliffa · 2026-08-03T11:31:19-0600

dobba99 said:
I have repaired a couple of Alton stators (after the solid wire fly leads have broken necessitating a rewind)
Each coil on the alton stator has a meter of wire wrapped around it. Rewinding and keeping the coil diameter the same took a few attempts. I know there is more space between the coils that could be used for more turns but the coils will then be fatter and will probably interfere with the starter chain. If you can get more turns on each coil, but, not increase the overall width of the stator, rewinding, for more output, might work. How much space is there between the starter chain and the stator?

To be honest I haven’t looked into the primary for a few years, but when I was installing the kit I also bought an IWIS chain from Andy chain man, but when I fitted it, it was too close for comfort so I stuck with the Alton supplied chain.

I reckon the answer may be another two or three coils, but that would need a complete rework.

dobba99 · 2026-08-03T12:28:45-0600

Rooted out the Alton bits i got at auction and added a four more turns of 1mm copper wire. The photo shows that the chain clearance is still adequate

cliffa · 2026-08-03T13:05:36-0600

dobba99 said:
Rooted out the Alton bits i got at auction and added a four more turns of 1mm copper wire. The photo shows that the chain clearance is still adequate

Are the coils mounted on plastic cotton reels?

Alton starter motor

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