Battery, Starter?

Battery, Starter? (FIXED!)

EDIT: FIXED! It was a loose negative battery cable. It would charge at night with the trickle charger. However, while riding the bike would slowly lose charge and die. I removed the battery cables, cleaned them off, cleaned the posts, then put the cables back on nice and tight. Rode approx 400+ miles this past weekend without an issue - many stops along the way!



So over the past couple of weeks I've been having minor issues when starting the bike. I would hit the start button and sometimes it would click but start. This would reset my trip odometer as well as clock. It happened maybe 5 times in the past 4-5 weeks. Finally, last night my g/f and I took the bike for a picnic. As we were leaving I go to start it and it just turned over a bunch of times. I stopped, tried it again and then it just clicked. When I had my finger on the starter all the lights on my display and headlight were completely out. But I would then take my finger off of the starter and the lights would come back on.

Does this sound like a short? Low battery? Bad starter? Combination of both? Something else? Bike has not been on a charger in about 2 months, so I just started to charge it last night on the trickle and will hook it up to the trickle every night when I get home.

Thanks.

 

I would not give this another thought until you installed a new battery and checked the charging system with a meter.

 

New Yuasa battery. 2 months old.

 

my 6th has issues after winter storage, full charge w/ charger before riding.
if batt doesnt have full charge and you only do short rides it doesnt seem to fully charge w/ alt. < no clue why

 

Relocated my charger - charging it every time I park it overnight at home now. It has been starting pretty well. Very quick turnover when cranking now. When sitting at a light with my turn signal on, my dash lights will flicker when the turn signal is flashing. Also, when just sitting at a light at night, my headlights will kind of flicker as well when at idle. If I twist my wrist and increase the engine RPM's, this flicker goes away. Normal - or battery issue?

 

funny mine is doing kinda the same thing, but my battery is 9 yrs old.
put it on charger overnite friday, put 125 miles on it sat. Everything went fine on ride.
Came home and it would not start back up.
I will be looking at the R/R over the weekend.
multi meter is at 13.67 at idle, I think it should read more then that.

 

Per my motorcycle mechanic buddy it should be at "Just a smidgen over 12 volts at idle".

 

what should it read tink, will ck mine tonite.

 

Sounds like a bad ground connection to me.

 

I'll be adding one of these as I have a CTEK system currently:

CTEK Battery Chargers 56-382 - CTEK Comfort Indicator with Eyelets - Quadratec

 

It's been okay 'til now. I've been charging it nightly. It's always on green when the morning comes.

-Today, I took the bike out at 11:15am. I rode for 1 hour to my other house & parked it.
-After being parked for ten mins I went to start it again. It labored, then the clock/trip odo reset. I pushed the starter again and it started up. Rode for 15 minutes & parked it
-Ate lunch, grabbed ice cream, then walked back to the bike (I'd say 1 to 1.5 hours of being parked) - started right up. Rode for 1 hour
-Got gas at Sunoco, bike would not restart. All my gauge lights were plenty bright, my HID headlights that have issues turning on at low power were fine. I got to the point where I'd push the start button and nothing would happen except the lights would flash. Finally pushed the bike across a busy street, went down a hill, and pop started it. Rode 5 mins home.
-I tried to restart it at my house and it restarted twice fine, and the third time it would not restart. I plugged it in.

I haven't had a chance to check the voltage and such, but I am going out in a few minutes to check over the wiring for loose connections. I have a total of 3 accessories (GPS, bike charger, HID headlights) wired into the bike at the battery terminals, so there may be some connection issues going on there.

 

FIXED! See my original post