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too cold to start griso?

ipo

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
50
Location
Toronto
Hi everyone, we've had 3 very cold days (-15C) and my griso won't start. The battery is ok (all lights come on) but when I hit the ignition switch I get a short clunk from the engine followed by the typical gas pump noise. I rode the bike about 10 days ago and all was normal then, so I am assuming that it's been too cold in the garage and perhaps the starter is frozen. What do you recommend to start her up?
 
ipo said:
Hi everyone, we've had 3 very cold days (-15C) and my griso won't start. The battery is ok (all lights come on) but when I hit the ignition switch I get a short clunk from the engine followed by the typical gas pump noise. I rode the bike about 10 days ago and all was normal then, so I am assuming that it's been too cold in the garage and perhaps the starter is frozen. What do you recommend to start her up?

Check the battery terminals. I noticed that the cold weather tended to make mine loose frequently. They would be connected but pulling juice through them caused them to disconnect. Mine also displayed the exact same behavior when the battery is low. There is enough juice to get the lights on etc but as soon as it tries to pull juice the low voltage cutoff will kick in. I ended up buying a battery tender because it was happening so much in the winter.
 
May just be that the battery doesn't have enough charge to start the engine, but has enough juice to run accessories. I'd check the battery for charge first, especially if the garage isn't heated. If the battery is reaching end of life, the cold may have killed it.
 
I tried both suggestions and still no go. I cleaned the battery terminals and checked its charge with a meter and everything looks ok. However when I press the ignition button I still get this medium-loud click.
 
ipo said:
I tried both suggestions and still no go. I cleaned the battery terminals and checked its charge with a meter and everything looks ok. However when I press the ignition button I still get this medium-loud click.

How did you check the charge? It could show 12V and still be 80% discharged. I'm making those #'s up but the voltage levels are relatively flat charged vs discharged only a few millivolts could separate a good vs bad battery. Basically a discharged battery shows itself more with a high internal resistance rather than a significant drop in voltage. It certainly could be something else but I had the exact same experience and it was a dead battery. Hooked it up to a battery tender and a few hours later it started right up.
 
Your battery voltage is probably below the threshold value required by the ECU to crank the engine. Everything works, but the ECU will cut the starting sequence because of low voltage.
 
The battery voltage will be fine but the cranking amperage may not be sufficient to engage the solenoid and rotate the Bendix even after charging it.
After full charge the terminal voltage will drop quickly to 13.2 V and then slowly to 12.6 V

One test to do would be, with a voltmeter, monitor the battery voltage when you press the ignition button.
If the voltage drops below 11.8v the problem is there. (Battery)
 
Everyone seems to be diagnosing this as a weak battery problem. Just an alternative idea here, but on my Le Mans whenever this happened it was the starter motor that had gone to sleep. It might be worth removing the plastic cover and then giving the starter motor a firm whack with a soft faced mallet to see if it wakes up. I found the best target area was the end where it joins the engine....regularly worked on my LM!
 
Thank you everyone for the replies. My apologies for being so late responding but my health has not been the best. I will wait until the weather warms up a little and I will try all of your suggestions; I will post back what I find out. Thank you all once again.

ipo
 
ipo, you can always take a wire from the positive (+) side of the battery to the small spaded connector on the starter to see if it is a wiring issue. If it starts, (outside of checking all of your fuses, and making sure the battery tests good) see this thread; https://www.guzzitech.com/forum/196/4908.html
 
Hi Ipo,

just hang him with startercables onto your daily use carbattery.
With the car not running, it's getting no more than 12 volt into your Guzzi system.
With the car running it will be about 13.5 volt.
Your car battery will have plenty power to crank your Griso.

Ad B
 
Ad B said:
Hi Ipo,

just hang him with startercables onto your daily use carbattery.
With the car not running, it's getting no more than 12 volt into your Guzzi system.
With the car running it will be about 13.5 volt.
Your car battery will have plenty power to crank your Griso.

Ad B

Yes, plenty of power, but is the cabling in the Griso able to handle the amperage? Most manufactures recommend not jumping from car batteries.
 
Hi,
john zibell said:
Yes, plenty of power, but is the cabling in the Griso able to handle the amperage? Most manufactures recommend not jumping from car batteries.
The car isn't giving amperage, the bike is asking a certan amount of amperage.
Connecting a normal 12 V car battery onto your bike is safe.
There will run no more volt or amperage through the cables as in a normal way of starting.
It's different when you want to connect a starter jumper (or how do you call that in Englisch?).
I think such a device sends more volts through your bike. And that can be very wrong for your electric parts.

Ad B
 
Finally I was able to look into this issue and solve it thanks to your help. I ended up buying a new battery and the bike started right up. There's one thing I do not understand, though. If I put the battery on the floor and use jumper cables to connect it to the bike, it won't start. It was only after I placed the new battery in its compartment and connected it directly to the bike's terminal lugs that I got it to run. I wonder if that would have saved me the $100+ I spent.

Thank you all again
ipo
 
Hi ipo,

My 07 Griso made the same click sound as well until I got a new battery (this year). As far as I can tell it was the sound of the starter motor making contact with the flywheel and not being able to turn it due to the weak battery. The sleep current (turned off) for the griso seems high enough to drain the battery in about 30 days and if not recharged, render it useless.

What might be useful is if you go through the dash menu and bring up the battery meter, it will say like 12.0; if you press the starter and see the voltage tank without the starter working, you know there's not enough charge in the battery (or less likely the start's seized).

p.s. I'm new to the forum but my bike's not ;) - the other Black Griso in T.O (yonge/lawrence) which is now permanently on display on Google street-view.
 
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