Finally Getting Started

With a motor full of broken gears, we began scouring the internet for a source of replacement parts. Ebay turned up nothing but some random parts and inoperable starter motors. But according to some of the Aermacchi websites, it sounded like the "go-to" person was Ron Lancaster at Lancaster Aermacchi Sprint. We gave him a call and discovered that he sold out of the sets of gears that he had made, without plans for making additional sets. On the other hand, we could buy a new starter conversion built from a Honda Goldwing starter. It would work, but would look like an afterthought on the bike. Not so pretty. Sticklers for keeping the original Sprint 350's details, we kept searching.

05.07.20 Broadening our search to just "Aermacchi NOS Parts," opened up more options for finding the necessary individual components, starting with a set of two ring gears (#50022-73P). We needed only one, so the other one can go back on sale on Ebay one day. We also found a cheap-quality [overpriced!] gear puller on Amazon which helped to pry the broken ring gear out. Baby steps toward making this thing operable.

05.12.20 The Starter Motor Repair Kit (31437-73) arrived! Assuming they must had sold a bunch of these since we've seen a good number of old starters online with broken gear teeth. We promptly removed the cotter pins, pulled out the small planetary gears, and installed them into the Aermacchi – now complete with a full set of new gears. Hopefully, they don't blow up again. Ideally, we'd like to make a set of new, modern gears in a less brittle material to ensure the reliability of our starter. Maybe our talented friends at Additive Restoration can come up with a solution!

Starter motor headache relief!

And the moment of truth…