Bike is still not consistantly starting :( Problem Solved.
 

A few months back i made a few posts about this issue, but then it got into the 100s and i didn't ride as much, but it is starting to cool down, so i want to ride again. I thought the issue was a bad battery, so i went out and purchased a new one and the problem was worse then my old battery. It wouldn't even turn the engine over once.

The Problem:
The bike doesn't like to start if it hasn't run that day. I went about 4 weeks without almost any issues and since then i haven't got the bike to run once. Every night I turn on the trickle charger, so the battery is always full. With my old battery fully charged, i can turn the engine over about 3 tries and then it dies. The battery isnt completely dead though, the lights are still totally bright and so it is very strange. This battery is actually putting out about 10-15 % more CCA then what it is suppose to. It was tested on a load tester when i thought it was bad the first time and it was well over 210 CCA, i dont remember what ours were, but it was much more. I never have the choke at the "perfect" spot for her to start right up right the first try.

So at the beginning of the season i had two issues, a bad rectifier and this problem which i still don't know what it is. I have ridden actually a LOT this summer with this problem, but recently i haven't got her to run once. So i am down to cables and starter. I did test the stator and it checked out fine. So battery and rectifier are perfect. So it must be starter or "starter relay" I actually didn't know there was a starter relay on these bikes until i saw this one on ebay today. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-S...20168006r24601
So is that a possible issue? It seems that when i try to start, something causes a huge drop in voltage or increase in current, which makes it so the starter wont start. Can those relays die? I always hear a click behind be, which i assume is the starter relay now. So how can i test the starter relay? Is the starter relay the one that has the fuse and cuts off all power to the bike? The fuse blew a few months back and someone helped me find that. I replaced the fuse and kept riding. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks!


Problem Solved:
Quick update: Bike is completely fixed.
The terminals shown below looked totally fine. I couldnt believe it, but then i sanded them a bit and i found out they had a small layer of corrosion , that was actaully pretty bad. Once i did that, the bike started up immediately. First rotation of the engine. It hasnt done that in MONTHS! Man, almost the whole summer has sucked because of light corrosion. Geesh! So the problem at the beginning of the summer was a mixture of a bad rectifier and corrosion on the main terminals. Problem solved.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7023/imag0723.jpg

I did have a problem with the starter relay once. It turned out to be corroded contacts on the connector from the wiring harness. The relay would click but no cranking from the starter motor.

But I would think that this would draw less current from the battery, because of the higher resistance. It sounds like you are drawing a lot of current fromt he battery, if it is going dead that fast.

If the battery is not runing down, but there is not enough current to crank the engine, I would look at the starter relay. But if the battery is going dead, I would start thinking that you may have a short in the starter core, which would draw a high curent but not produce much torque in the starter. The windings in the starter are insulated from each other. If the insulation breaks down, you get a short in the windings.

Good luck.

Sorry, i missed that part. No, the battery is nearly fully charged or fully charged. Usually when i try it 3 x then it takes about 5-15 minutes on a 1.5a trickle charger to fully charge again. Every night when i get home from work, i put it on the trickle charger also, and it turns to fully charged within about 10-30 seconds, so the charging system is running perfectly now. It seems like the system just is requiring ALL of the battery to even try. Battery is definitely not discharged much.

Thanks for responding. Contacts on the battery are perfect, but i will check the contacts on the starter relay.

Does it crank normally if you take the starter wire off the relay and touch it to the battery wire, on the other side of the relay?

When the relay closes, it's a straight shot from the battery to the starter.

I will give that a whirl.
Thanks!

Quick update: Bike is completely fixed.
The terminals shown below looked totally fine. I couldnt believe it, but then i sanded them a bit and i found out they had a small layer of corrosion , that was actaully pretty bad. Once i did that, the bike started up immediately. First rotation of the engine. It hasnt done that in MONTHS! Man, almost the whole summer has sucked because of light corrosion. Geesh! So the problem at the beginning of the summer was a mixture of a bad rectifier and corrosion on the main terminals. Problem solved.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/7023/imag0723.jpg