Well, i took the starter up to an alternator/starter rebuild shop here in town. The guy looked at the armature, and specifically the commutator and basically said it doesn't look as though there's enough metal on the commutator for him to turn it easily without making to overly thin. So, he basically said "if you can get a new one, that's what i'd do". So i started poking my head around, hopped on eBay and saw a guy selling a NH exhaust here in St. Louis, e-mailed him about the exhaust, and asked if he had a starter too, sure enough he did. Purchased the new starter (and exhaust), cleaned her up, installed, and boom...good, easy starting hot or cold!!! The starter also spins much faster than the old starter i have, so all in all, i'm pretty happy with the starter setup.
I bought the exhaust because something had been burned onto mine, in his pictures it looked as though the exhaust had a couple dents under the pipes before the crossover, but i was disappointed when i saw one dent that didn't show up in pictures, on the outside of the left exhaust pipe
luckily my pipe with the worst "burn on" is the outside of the right pipe, so it will be good for replacing that half. If i choose not to, it'll make a heck of a good exhaust for someone with really beat up or rusty pipes. If not, i'll use it if i choose to Bob the bike over the winter. All in all, just thought i'd mention what the fix to my numerous starter problems was.
