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Bike won't start (but battery is fine)

T

tgarlick

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Oct 28, 2008
Messages
30
My 2003 Aluminum won't' start again. I haven't been riding for about six months (had a baby and was just too busy). When I tried to start it a couple weeks ago, it wouldn't start, although the light came on. I figured it was most likely the batter, so I removed it and charged it up and put it back in but it still wouldn't start and didn't have time to keep looking at it then. My building is cleaning the garage tomorrow so I went to look at it again. The last time this happened, you guys suggested checking the fuses/relays, so I did that but even after replacing all of them, it still won't' start. The lights all come on strong, and when you turn the kill switch to On, you can hear whatever it is that moves inside (yeah, I'm real bike-technical, can you tell?). Push the start button though, and it just loud-clunk clicks but doesn't even try to turn over.

Any idea what else I can try?

Thanks,

-Tim.
 
Fully recharge battery and try again,
Chances are the battery is sulphated, basic trickle charge may put voltage back in but will be insufficient.

Cold Cranking Amps (CCa's) are whats needed.

If you have access to Optimate battery charger it may recover your battery by de-sulphating it through short burst of high voltage input.

If it has dropped a cell, buy a new battery and get a battery tender that will keep it fully functional for those long periods of inactivity.
 
tgarlick said:
Push the start button though, and it just loud-clunk clicks but doesn't even try to turn over.

Any idea what else I can try?

Thanks,

-Tim.
Click to expand...

That is an indicator of a bad battery, exactly what ghezzi said. The " loud clunk-clicks+ is caused by the starter solenoid trying to engage, but there isn't enough amperage to hold the solenoid. If the battery is more than three years old, don't waste time on it, just replace it.
 
Thanks, I was afraid of that. Moral of the story is clearly to ride more...

-Tim.
 
john zibell said:
tgarlick said:
Push the start button though, and it just loud-clunk clicks but doesn't even try to turn over.

Any idea what else I can try?

Thanks,

-Tim.
Click to expand...

That is an indicator of a bad battery, exactly what ghezzi said. The " loud clunk-clicks+ is caused by the starter solenoid trying to engage, but there isn't enough amperage to hold the solenoid. If the battery is more than three years old, don't waste time on it, just replace it.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the main culprit with this symptom is the battery, but the key thing to look for is where the voltage drop is occuring. If the battery is weak it may show 12-13 volts but under load this will fall dramatically. The same symptom will occur if the battery terminals are dirty, or there is a bad joint in the wiring (like I had a couple of weeks ago :( )
Remove the terminals from the battery, clean them, top and bottom, and try a jump start from the car, preferably a big deisel. If it's still a no go, start following the wires.
Is the starter stuck?
 
It just "might" be the classic starting issue many of us have had, that is solved by wiring up the starter relay direct from the battery (through a fuse of course). Details are on this site for how to do it.
 
Oz1200Guzzi said:
It just "might" be the classic starting issue many of us have had, that is solved by wiring up the starter relay direct from the battery (through a fuse of course). Details are on this site for how to do it.
Click to expand...

I could well be, but in my case, I found that to be an intermitant issue, rather than permanent.
 
To my knowledge the older bikes like the Stone and V11 do not suffer the same issue the newer bikes do where a voltage drop during a start attempt causes the ECU to abort the start. That issue can be an intermittent issue as well, and the standard fix is to resolve the voltage drop by running new power feed wire and/or adding another relay.
But that does not mean you do not have a voltage drop causing your bike not to start. A bad/loose ground or corroded power feed connections can impede the flow of electrons to where you have enough to make that clunk noise but not enough to actually run the starter under load. That can also be an intermittent issue. It is also possible that the starter is giving up, but in my experience a bad battery that may have the voltage but has lost the amperage or the aforementioned wiring issues are much more likely.
You could pull starter off to test it, but I would be surprised if it was the problem.
 
Hi tgarlick, any news on the start issue? We're all interested to know how you've got on! :)
 
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