solenoid dismantled

[cooltshirt]

So having replaced a faulty solenoid a couple of months ago I decided to 'dismantle' the old one and have a look.
Out with the hacksaw and into two pieces.
The bottom half (left bit) has a plunger and a spring which when not energised pushes the small silver pin on the top half (right bit) and that keeps the circuit broken as the piece of copper that it is attached to (just visible) is needed to make a connection between the left and right bigger bits which go direct to the terminals.
When energised the plunger is withdrawn into the body of the bottom half and the silver pin comes down and the circuit is complete.
I'm guessing that the darker piece of copper which looks like it has been hot was making a poor contact and hence an unreliable solenoid.
In other news UI have new fork seals and gaiters ...... guess what's on the to do list 

[TimV]

Excellent, it's always fascinating cutting things open. I carefully dismantled a dead but expensive Gerbing 12v battery pack to find it contained 3 rather normal battery cells. I replaced the lot for under £20.

[cooltshirt]

Indeed always good to look. I learnt two things from dismantling this, both of which weren't news.

• It isn't a repairable item
• At less than £20 delivered from eBay for a new one and 5 minutes to fit pointless to consider anything else.

[purplebikeunicorn]

Not like the older style starter solenoids, you could do some minor maintenance on them (removing the metal cup and cleaning up contacts).

That said, the chinesium solenoids you get for some Honda bikes are bloody awful and we've had two fail in short time.