Motorcycle Repair: starter problems, honda vt1100c, torque limiter

Question
recently purchased a 1986 1100 shadow, seems to turn over slowly, starter rebuild time.. attempting to remove starter. manual seems vague, suggested that i remove  a couple of covers, take out starter gear  and another limiter gear, and the starter should  come out, but there doesn t seem to be room. will I have to remove the next cover, behind the shift lever , to get  the starter out? there doesnt seem to be enough room for the starter to move back.. thanks

Answer
Frank, there are two major items for the starter system on that model

http://www.cmsnl.com/honda-vt1100c-shadow-1988-francekph-yb_model5857/partslist/   #4 and 5

and the starter motor, itself. I haven't worked on these bikes for that kind of repair, but what I see on the microfiche shows two vertical bolts that hold the starter into the case. Removing the two bolts should allow the starter motor to just slide straight out, if nothing else is in the way.

I found a site with a copy of the Hayne's book online...  

http://v4musclebike.com/v65mike/VT1100C%2085-98%20manual.pdf section 9-18

Motor removal is straight forward.  If you are working on the starter drive/torque limiter parts, those are on the left.

For more specific assistance, if that doesn't help, try http://www.hondashadow.net/

Bill Silver