OK........Never had a starter problem with a 'modern' bike...........It's done it twice now.........push button, nuthin' really maybe a faint hint of something about to happen..... ......first time it did it, I pressed the button again before I realised what it had done and away it went.... ....second time this evening, pressed button; same result....nuthin' although I instantly thought flat battery............which it wasn't.........pushed the bike in second gear about three inches, it seemed to be on the compression stroke when I dropped the clutch..............Pressed the button and it fired up no trouble....... Just checked it again and used the kill switch so I could hear what might happen; but it spun over easily.... Six / seven year old battery possibly can't turn it over when on compression stroke??? PS.....checked all connections.....AOK
Hi AL, I had a starting intermittent problem when my solenoid was failing. Also had a similar problem with the main relay from the ignition to the fuse box.replaced it and it was fine. Not sure if that actually helps a lot mate but just thought I would mention it.
Mine had an intermittent stating fault, replaced solenoid as I couldn't hear it.. nothing.. took the switch apart and cleaned the contacts and it was solved. Al, if it turns out to be the solenoid, drop me a message - I've a couple of spares
could it be the starter brushes are worn down ?? How many miles has it done? .....do not hit the starter case cause the permenant magnets are glued to the outside and fracture really easy (yes I did that).
Cables and connections AOK.........bike has done 31K, but whether the starter is the same age, I don't know. The symptom is like a battery that has just enough juice to engage the starter, but not enough to spin the engine.......also similar to a car starter when the bendix pinion gets stuck in the ring gear. One minute AOK, another time it will do it......can't be battery because it turns the engine over easily when the problem doesn't occur; unless the battery can only get the engine turning over when its not on the compression stroke.....
Al Sounds very much like either the brushes are at the end of their life, and therefore not pressing into the commutator with enough pressure to make sufficient contact, or the commutator is dirty,and possibly worn, or a combination of both. Possibly the brushes and the commutator have a 'glaze' on them resulting in the intermittent working you are experiencing. New set of brushes, and a clean up of the commutator should have you back in business.
the only other thing to add to John's is that worse scenario from your symptoms could be that a connection to a comm segment or two have shorted out*. You will both remember I think how years ago you could get a similar thing happen on an inertia-engage type starter on a car but the beauty of it was that you could get a spanner on the squared end of the armature shaft and turn it so it would energise next time you prodded the starter. Sadly we can't easily do that to test it. *if it is this it must be intermittently shorting or it just wouldn't work at all if two segments stopped in the shorted position - I had a Mito starter recently fail in the same way and it wasn't until I stripped it that I could really confirm it was dud.
It has performed perfectly every time today...... .....been started seven times at various stages of a ride, no problems............... Thanks for the ideas though..........
I recon it's the battery, they do funny things when they get to the end of their lives, it's probably worked OK today because using the bike has just given it enough extra charge to behave itself, if you leave it off a charger for a couple of days I bet you'll have the same problem.
