New Member here from south florida. I do not have a bike, unfortunately, but am here trying to help out my mom that just moved in with me.

She has a silver 2007 1200c Sportster that she loves and just recently paid off.

Sorry for the long post, but we are having a very peculiar problem.

Years of trouble free riding until recently.

She is in a definite money crunch recently and her bike just doesn't want to cooperate with her.

This started about 2 months ago, she has a fairly new battery and fairly new starter and also uses a battery tender.

At times when she tries to start the bike it kind of clicks/whirs almost like the starter is missing a tooth or not enough power but then catches and fires up.

Now it's starting to get weird. It seems to run fine for a while (took a 90 mile ride) and at the beginning bike was fine then the last 15-25 miles the bike would try to stall at stops and she has to give it throttle to keep it from cutting out.

At home as she was getting ready to put the bike back in the back it popped real bad, stalled, and filled the yard in a huge cloud of smoke from the air cleaner.

Any ideas?

 

Welcome.
Check the battery cables to be sure they are tight, don't just wiggle them with your fingers, don't ask me how I know that.

 

Your question didn't belong in the "New Members Area".

It's for introductions. So it was moved in one of the other forums.

 

You're correct, it is missing a tooth (or more).
The starter clutch has some broken teeth, it's not uncommon on 1200's, especially in hotter climates. The damage is caused by engine "kick back" when doing a hot start, like after a short stop to refuel, when a cylinder hasn't had enough time too bleed off pressure.

The starter must be removed to get to the starter clutch (bendix) assembly which can be purchased separately. Last time I looked it was in the $60 range.

 

Something else to check based on experience - I bought a used '07 1200C that ran fine initially. Got it home and same thing happened. What I found rather quickly was green terminals in the fuse box on the left side of the bike - sprayed it with WD40 and it's been fine since, but this winter I'll go through it and make proper repairs. Pull fuses/relays and spray and clean as necessary.