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Cranking really slow all of a sudden.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Goose
  • Start date Start date
G

Goose

Guest
Well, this is rather strange. I just rode my 550L last week and it ran like a top. Now after sitting for four days, I went to start it and the starter cranked really slow, like the battery was dead. So, charged the battery over night, but same problem. Got out my spare battery, put a charge on it over night, same thing. Bike cranks a turn or two really slow, progressively slower, then nothing. The Negative battery wire gets really hot if I try to turn it over more than a second or two. Thought maybe it was a bad ground, so I cleaned it up but no joy.

What the hell? Is my starter all of sudden going bad?
 
Clean the brushes on the starter. If still no joy you can buy new ones.
Did you check the connection on the battery, solenoid and starter?

Jumb off the solenoid and see if it turns any faster. Could also be a bad solenoid switch.
 
I'll give that a try, I just cleaned and vaselined all my connections last month.
 
Just to rule this out..... Put the bike on the centerstand and check the oil level. I had one bike that developed a leaking petcock. Unknown to me, overnight enough fuel had leaked into the crankcase to nearly cause hydraulic lock and the starter would barely turn the engine over because fuel was all the way up to the pistons.

Earl
 
Holy, crap, Earl. I'm in a night class right now so I can't go look, but I have noticed a strong gas smell in the garage lately! Bugger! Thanks. I'll post later with my findings.
 
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Yup, fuel in the crank could be it.
If not, did the bike sit in the rain during those four days? Water in the kill switch area can cause your problem.
 
Swing and a miss...

Swing and a miss...

Got home and checked the oil. No gas in there. Level is normal. Took a cable tie and slipped it into the filler hole. Oil smells and feels normal. Crap. Thought that might be it.

Let my bike sit in the rain??? Blasphemer! :-) No, it's kept in the garage.

Guess I'm back to checking the starter? But that'll have to be tomorrow after work. $hit. And it'll probably be another nice day when I could have been riding. :-(
 
Check both ends of the ground wire and the crimp connection on the wire running from your neg bat terminal to the top of the transmission. Dirty or corroded will kill the amperage available to the starter. Assuming that is ok, I would connect a heavy guage jumper between the two posts on the solenoid. If the problem is a bad solenoid, that jumper should let the bike crank over normally. If it still cranks slow (and the battery is showing 12.5 or better) then its the starter. You may be able to get by with doing nothing more than taking the starter apart and cleaning it up.

E.


Goose said:
Got home and checked the oil. No gas in there. Level is normal. Took a cable tie and slipped it into the filler hole. Oil smells and feels normal. Crap. Thought that might be it.

Let my bike sit in the rain??? Blasphemer! :-) No, it's kept in the garage.

Guess I'm back to checking the starter? But that'll have to be tomorrow after work. $hit. And it'll probably be another nice day when I could have been riding. :-(
Click to expand...
 
Could I just lay a screwdriver across the posts on the solenoid?

Also, just got done trying some more searchs here with little result. The Positive wire from the battery to the solenoid will actually start to smoke a little if I stay on the starter button too long. Could this be a symptom of a bad solenoid?

Thanks for all the suggestions, really. Just checked the weather forecast and yes, of course, tomorrow is going to be a gorgeous day...
 
Yes, you can do the same thing with a screwdriver. If it still cranks slow, its gotta be the starter motor.

E.



Goose said:
Could I just lay a screwdriver across the posts on the solenoid?

Also, just got done trying some more searchs here with little result. The Positive wire from the battery to the solenoid will actually start to smoke a little if I stay on the starter button too long. Could this be a symptom of a bad solenoid?

Thanks for all the suggestions, really. Just checked the weather forecast and yes, of course, tomorrow is going to be a gorgeous day...
Click to expand...
 
Excess heat in a wire is the sign of too much resistance. If your battery wire is getting hot, it probably has a bad connection.

Keep in mind that it is not just the connector to the battery that matters, there is another connection between the wire and the connector. Try re-criming the connector (at both ends of the wire) to see if that helps any.


.
 
Yes, it could be that too. Or, the faulty starter motor is drawing more amperage than the capacity of the wire.

E.


Steve said:
Excess heat in a wire is the sign of too much resistance. If your battery wire is getting hot, it probably has a bad connection.

Keep in mind that it is not just the connector to the battery that matters, there is another connection between the wire and the connector. Try re-criming the connector (at both ends of the wire) to see if that helps any.


.
Click to expand...
 
This is really painful. The sun is shining, temps warming up, and here it sit in my cube. I might have to run home at lunch and see what I can get accomplished on the bike. I stayed up last night after class till almost midnight, but was a little tired to troubleshoot with confidence.

My thoughts were that this was a bad connection, but unless its right on the starter, I've already brushed, scraped and greased everything.

That ground wire to the back of the motor is a real SOB to get at. I could barely get a 10mm wrench on it.

Again, thanks for all the input. I WILL be back on the road soon.
 
The R/R went out on my bike, and my charging system failed. I put the bike on the charger overnight and it still wouldn't take a charge... What the heck... I just bought this battery a week ago. Turned out that my R/R was bad and that when I was charging the battery my stator was taking all the juice and acting like a heater. I felt the cover and it was really hot. Check to see that you have like 12.7 volts or so on the battery. The stator put a large draw on the battery and could be why you cant crank it over quickly. Just a thought maybe I'm totally out on a tangent.
 
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