The other day I accidently hit my start switch when parking my bike at home (04 FLHT stock motor). There was a loud grinding noise that occured. I left the bike and went to start it this morning only to find that when I hit the start button the starter made a loud grinding clunking noise. I tried it again and it did the same thing. The bike runs fine after startup. Could accidently hitting the start button while running for a quick second damage the starter, is there something I can do to fix this without tearing down the starter. I had to replace the starter clutch last year. I'm under warranty still but can't get my bike in until next week, will starting it cause more damage or should I just leave it??...tks in advance, Dave

 

Is this a 2011 liquid cooled Electra Glide? If not I would either forget about it, or bring it in since its under warranty. You should just bring it in you seem pretty worried about this,

 

Hitting the starter button while running isnt a warranty issue its rather a Opps issue and Iam sure more then enough of us have done it here...

 

I've done it before, while reaching for the kill switch, without any issue. Maybe I was lucky.

 

Sounds to me like it tore the starter gears up a little. If it's under warranty I'd call the dealer and have them pick it up and I wouldn't volunteer any info on how it may have happened, just tell them it's messed up "again".