After unloading the Sherco at Twin HIlls Cycle Ranch, my two stroke wouldn’t start. The sound was that of an RC Car engine going full blast with no where to go. The electric starter was working, but it wasn’t connecting to the flywheel; the bendix needed to be replaced.

The Bendix Gear, or Starter Drive, expands to connect the electric starter shaft to the ring gear on the flywheel. And when the bendix breaks, the electric starter on your dirt bike is useless. As more kickstarters are being removed, the question I’m asking is “should the bendix be a piece that can fail so easily?”.

Luckily for us DIY mechanics, the replacement of the bendix is fairly simple. You remove the ignition cover (watching for the dowels), slip the broken bendix out, and slip the new bendix back into place. I decided to replace the double pinion starter gear on the Sherco as well, because in the past six years, it looks to have been updated. This added a little bit more complexity to the job on hand, but so far, I haven’t screwed anything up 😬.

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