Hi, My 1999 900ss refuses to start. Plenty of juice in battery. Engine does not turn over. There is a vibrating noise and the tacho rises to 7000rpm when ignition turned. Bike has not been run for 3 weeks. Its connected to an optimizer to keep the battery topped up. Any thoughts? Where should I start to look to sort this problem?
Belt snapped on vertical cylinder??......can't be the horizontal one if the rev counter is working. Turning over at 7000rpm suggests summink major wrong................I can't imagine a battery spinning the engine at that speed, even with the plugs out.........get the belt cover off before anything else I reckon. AL
Thanks for the speedy reply. When I say the tacho needle rises to 7000 it does this without the bike turning over. The neutral light is bright and when trying to start there is a vibrating/clicking sound and that's when the rev counter needle rises. Very strange. Could it be the starter motor?
So its an injection model then? OK.....so you had better check what Supervee suggested in your other post...............could be a bad connection or the starter solenoid has failed......... Find yourself a pair of jump leads and connect the red one directly to battery +ive and the other end to the starter terminal post (without touching anything else ffs...). The starter if OK should spin and turn the engine over. If it doesn't, check to see if the frame to engine earth connections are bad, by taking the black jump lead from the battery -ive directly to a good point on the engine. AL
if the rev counter is wazzing up to 7000 with just the ign on the I think it might be an ecu problem. I have a spare you can borrow for a test if you need it.
Thanks for the response. The tacho only registers when pressing the starter, not when the ignition is just turned on.
I have not jet washed the bike. The scary thing is the response (900streetfighter) mentioning mice! We are a bit rural and do have mice in the garage/shed. This bike has been very reliable up to now and for it to suddenly have a problem is a mystery. I work away in the week so will check it out on Friday evening hoping not to find a family of mice nesting somewhere under the fairings. Thanks again for the responses. I have a good set of clues given by you all. These forums are great and say a lot about the biking community.
Had mice nest in the air box of my 900ssie. Made a nice mess of the air filter as they got comfy for the winter!!
would suggest same as AL post 5. Despite you saying battery full of juice it does sound as though the current isn't getting to the solenoid let alone the starter so typically ignition runs, connectors or battery. If you put your hand on the solenoid when you press start button is that where the vibration is coming from?
I would put the bike into gear and give it a push to turn the engine over a little bit, and then attempt to start it. It might be that the starter doesn't want to engage into the fly wheel where it is now, but turning the engine over a bit might free it up.
Yep.... But then I think of mine..........ran perfectly for two, two and half years without any issues............then just like that it started popping and banging even though I hadn't done anything to it..........then after having spent ages to find the cause, it seemed to improve......... ...............I'm one of those people that wants to see the evidence of what caused a problem, otherwise I can never trust the repair. However, the vibration the OP mentions is the worrying issue, although we can't tell what extent that vibration is.........ie, mechanical or electrical (like a stuck solenoid)...
