starter stays engaged

[bobrk1]

got an early evo 4 speed wlth the selenoid coming out of the inner primary, had to replace the starter and selenoid and now the starter stays engaged tried another selenoid and another relay changed the jackshaft and the arm that throws the drive, anyone got any ideas?

[1997bagger]

In most cases, a low battery will cause the starter to stay engaged, I don't know the mechanical reason why but in my occupation, it happens and my bike also did it with the battery ready to be replaced, had to let the starter run until dead and that finished the battery.
If you are costantly having to charge the battery or jump starting it, don't overlook that area.

[JohnS_Rosamond]

I recently updated the '88 to 1994 parts, but when I had the separate solenoid, yeah, mine would do that to me sometimes.  It only occurred rarely, but seemed to be associated with having the starter get stuck when the engine was on the compression stroke.  I had begun to wonder whether the reason it would stick had something to do with the armature being original.  I had replaced the starter motor, solenoid, bendix drive, relay, added ground straps and had good battery cables.  Kept the battery on an auto charger and it hadn't recently don it in a while.  It never did it when the battery was new, but the battery didn't have to be "almost dead" for it to do it either.  So, like the above post, all I can say is that "it happens," - never was really able to narrow it down.  Strangely, I feel like the bike starts more strongly with the later model starter (even though I'm running the stock-style 1988 battery which is a tad smaller than the later battery).

[Old Crow]

Make sure the positive wire from the battery is hooked to the long stud on the solonoid and the lead to the starter is on the short stud.   
Make sure the wire to the little terminal is not touching the lead to the starter on the solonoid.

[ddawg619]

Are the spark plugs in? Needs compression to kick the starter drive back.

[speed limit]

Low battery

[RootOfAllEVO]

Having just been through this myself, it is worth taking off the outer primary cover and inspecting the jackshaft bushing for wear or burrs, and making sure the oil weep hole for the jackshaft bushing is open and not clogged. Also make sure the jackshaft bushing has not spun out of position and plugged the weep hole. If there is binding in the bushing, the jack shaft will not retract and the starter will stay in a "driven" position. Never hurts to clean out the metal chips and put fresh primary lube in anyhow.

[Bruno-Katz Fokkerpilot]

Sumink else you may wanna consider, It could be the starter ring gear causing it to bind. I recently replaced the Jackshaft in my `97 Fatboy because it was just freewheeling most of the time when i hit the button. Anyhow, that done, everything was fine for a few days when a godawfull grinding noise began to manifest itself everytime i started up. Once stripped down on the primary side, i found that the ring gear teeth had burred over and almost disappeared on about a quater of the ring gears circumference. This was what the noise turned out to be. Apparently, Harley engines always stop in the same place, [Dunno if this is fact tho] so when you go to startup, the jackshaft always engages round about the same point on the ring gear. Now, me having just fitted the new Jackshaft with nice clean cut pinnion teeth which then proceeded to engage with somewhat old and well worn ring gear teeth could have been the problem. Well i had the ring gear replaced with a beefed up bolt on version and all seems to be well again although, she does make a different cranking noise! I can live with that.....So, maybe on a bike of your vintage, it might be a good idea to replace the ring gear and jackshaft together?? Hope it works out ok.