Another click click...

[seagullplayer]

Yesterday on my way to work I stop for fuel and the bike will not start back up, just clicks like I have a bad connection. I check the battery connections, but they look good.

Pushed it around behind the station and tried once more, it starts!
So I take it back home and drive the truck to work.

Last night I clean all the power connections, on the battery and on the sol.
They didn't look to bad to me. Then I take the control connection loose beside
the 30 amp fuse on the sol. The control terminals are basically corroded to nothing.
I don't know how it ever worked!

The four male spade connectors on the sol. itself cleaned up fine, so I crimped new female spade connectors on the four wires. So far so good, rode it in to work this morning.



The starter is sometimes "draggy", but I think it is due to the cheap battery I installed this year. I may have to replace it when the summer heat arrives. I think it is just not robust enough for the demands of the bike. But that is another issue...

[neoracer]

do yourself a favor and replace those crimp connections by doing the solenoid mod and installing a 30 amp fuseholder now before the riding season starts or you'll be pushing or towing it home sometime later,same for hardwiring the stator and regulator connections.

most people dont realize the importance of doing the solenoid mod,but that connector is the charge line for the battery,having a problem there,besides not powering the mc,its a good reason why your battery may not be charging correctly

if your starter is "draggy" especially after initial morning start its a prime indication that the starter needs cleaning and maybe even brushes,doing a cleaning almost always results in restarts like u just istalled a new mega battery

[85GL1200I]

Good advice Neo....

just a quick question that may benefit other riders..........

when you hardwire the regulator.....do you cut out the connector and re-wire everything, or just hard wire the yellow wires around the connector?

I just checked my connector, it looks good, but so did my stator plug before it melted......

thanks.......

[firstwing85]

The starter is sometimes "draggy", but I think it is due to the cheap battery I installed this year. I may have to replace it when the summer heat arrives. I think it is just not robust enough for the demands of the bike. But that is another issue...

hello, my starter used to do that too, used to drag and sometimes not even restart the bike after the bike was warm.
I took the starter off and opened it up, there was so much dust in there that when it heated up with the heat of the engine then it jammed up the starter,
I cleaned out the starter and the brush guides and now it starts like a charm every time.

[seagullplayer]

"solenoid mod" what is this?

(My 30amp fuse is a "newer" blade style auto fuse. But is a part of the solenoid housing)

Anyone got a tutorial of removing the starter?

[neoracer]

basically you cut out the stator,regulator and the solenoid connectors

the regulator wires(green and red can be paired together) resulting in just having six wires instead of eight,one note is to add another green pigtail and run to ground,usually results in a slightly higher charge voltage,evidently the ground circuit is somewhat wimpy

the solenoid connector gets replaced by a 30 amp fuseholder( ie Trickys mod) and the red can be connected to the battery side of the solenoid resulting in one less wire hanging on the battery post

one note: with the new "improved" solenoids with the ato fuse the problem still is the connector,the ato fuse can then still be used as an auxiliary fuse circuit for something else if you changeout to a lower fuse amperage

[seagullplayer]

It has been a long summer for me and the wing!!!

Not long after I posted this thread it became apparent that my starter needed rebuilt.
It got to where I had to roll it around in gear to get it to "catch". I decided the job of
removing the starter was beyond my limited facility. I had no good way or place to jack
the bike up and work on it, I was also leery of removing the stud bolt to the exhaust.

So I contacted a shop that I buy parts from, he always has good prices on parts and told
me he could do the job and quoted me a price I thought was a bargain. He said he was
booked for the week and it would be the end of the next week before he could get to it,
I was fine with that and ROAD THE BIKE up to the shop and dropped it off that day.

Long story short that was three months ago! I would call and he would give me the same
story about being booked up and it would be the next week, yada, yada, yada. After about
a month of me calling and him acting upset that I called, I told him you have my number call me when its ready. Turned out he never did call! I called him last week, he told me he had the starter back on but could not get it to start, he asked me "how long has it sit?". I said I ROAD IT TO YOUR SHOP THREE MONTHS AGO! He said maybe he could get time to take a look at it next week, I said I will be up to get it Friday.

So I went and picked it up with a trailer, paid him what we had settled on, it appears he did do a good job on the started, and took it home.

Looked to me like it wasn't getting gas, so I pulled the output gas line off the fuel pump and hit the starter. It sputtered a bit then started pumping a stream of fuel. I put the line back on and started the bike right up. Aside from the fact that it ran like it had been sitting three months it ran good. I dumped a bottle of Lucas gas treatment in the tank topped it off with fresh high octane and road it about a 100 miles this weekend, plus the 40 miles to work this morning. After about ten miles of riding it was its old self again. And I have had zero trouble starting it. (It took me all of 20 minutes to get it running again, I will never take anything back to that shop again.)

My question is about the fuel pump, it appears to be working fine now? Can they somehow get "air locked", should I be worried about it? It seems to be doing fine now, the fuel filter is a new one I put on this spring, but maybe it had a piece of something in the fuel pump? I did replace the hose clamp, the old one was shot, I could see it maybe leaking, but never noticed smell or fuel?

Sure is great to have her back! I have been riding my Sportster all summer, it is a lot of fun, but my wife can't ride with me. We are planning a small trip this weekend.

[bs175dths]

I would venture to say your fuel pump was/is not the problem. The problem is with the mechanic (?). What you described of the fuel pump sounds like that of a pump which has been sitting, allowing the fuel to drain to low points, leaving pockets of air in the lines.
You have your bike back and on the road again so this is water under the bridge.... did he turn the petcock to "off" when he was not working on the bike? When was the last time he tried starting the bike? None of this really, really matters since you have the bike back and it appears to be functioning better.

BTW, if you don't mind working on the ground, you can get to the starter. In some cases, the exhaust stud does not need to be removed. I didn't have to remove mine when I did my "cleaning". Mine had little dust, brushes were well within spec., but my grease was like old putty, dry and hard, not allowing the planetarium gears to spin freely.

You might just try removing the starter and see if the stud needs to be removed.
Or, leave well enough alone and ride..............