Re: Very hard starting today
Add my bike to the list suffering this problem.
I had it apart for almost two weeks, installing electrical farkles. I tested the individual items as I got them finished. I only fired the bike up once during the testing, because I was running my garage furnace and I didn't want to open it and let all the heat out. But I had to fire it up to test the Flash2Pass garage door remote, because it runs off the high beam circuit, and the headlights won't come on unless the bike is running, and also, of course, the test entailed opening the door.
The Flass2Pass worked, and I shut the bike off with the key. Over the next few days, I turned the key on and off a number of times to test various other things, but I didn't start it again. Finally I got to the Denalis, which are switched off the high beams as well, so I needed to fire the bike up to try them. And it wouldn't start. It only cranked normally for a half dozen tries before the cranking got extremely weak. My voltmeter agreed - battery very sad. I put it on the tender to charge it back up and the tender agreed with the voltmeter.
I wait until the battery tender says the battery is charged. But it cranks down to nothing within a few seconds when I try to start the bike, and plugging the tender back in shows it is in a discharged state. After two or three tries, maybe twenty or thirty seconds of cranking total, it takes three or four hours to charge it back up again, and when I try to start it again, same thing.
And the bike smells like it is flooded.
If there's one thing I have learned from my years in tech support, it is to ask "What's changed?" So I disconnected all the accessory wiring, even the relay connected to the high beams. There's nothing of mine currently connected. I checked the stock fuses, too - all good. Still no joy.
It seems odd to me that the battery cranks down to nothing in ten seconds of cranking. I can't think of any possible accessory wiring error that could make a battery go dead so quickly, especially with all the accessories now disconnected. So I am wondering if I have a case of sudden Yuasa death syndrome here? Perhaps the battery was weak to begin with, and turning the key on and off a couple dozen times, then trying to start a flooded bike, has pushed it over the edge? I do not believe I could have fried anything with my accessory wiring - this is not my first rodeo, and accessory wiring is just not that hard. And I haven't connected to anything in the stock system, except the two battery terminals, one posi-tap on the high beam wire, and a connector from Eastern Beaver that lets me draw switched power from the stock grip heater plug.
And no, SisuTen, I do not think solder would solve this issue.
I'm thinking the next step is going to be to jumpstart it from the NT. If I have to buy a new battery, it's not the end of the world. But I'd rather not buy one if it's not what I need.
In other news, my dealer called today and asked when I want to bring it in for the recall. I didn't admit I can't start it, but I said "not today".
He said of course not, they haven't got the parts for me yet, and perhaps I'll bring it in the spring? I said no, order the parts now, I'll get it up there in the next few weeks. If I decide the battery is faulty I might try to get them to replace it while they're doing the recall.