| Author | Message | ||
     Mark_weiss |
For the past couple of months I have been frequently experiencing questionable starting. When I press the starter button, the bike frequently starts to spin, hesitates (on compression?), then pops over and starts(key on, engine cut on, wait for ck engine light to extinguish, then press the button). Other times, though not as often, it just spins right over. The batter is good. I checked the battery to frame ground and the engine to frame ground (under airbox). Disconnected both, made sure that the terminals and srufaces were clean. Anything else to check? Any other ideas? Mark in Arizona | ||
| Edgydrifter |
I left my Uly's lights on all day a few months ago, completely draining the battery. I removed said battery and left it on a trickle charger over the weekend. Since then, my bike does what you're describing--it starts to turn over, pauses for maybe half a second, and then rumbles to life normally. My guess is I damaged the battery, but as it was basically brand-new I've been in no hurry to purchase a replacement. I'm going to try to get by with this one for a while longer. As long as the bike starts (and it still does on the first try every time, albeit in a peculiar fashion) I'm not tooooo worried. | ||
| Bosh |
Mine does the same thing. Battery is getting on in years now, probably time for a new one. I think I'll pro-actively change my drive belt as well. | ||
| Mayerhd |
Just a little food for thought. Check all of your grounding, my bike did exactly as you describe, the slow/hesitant start. It eventually quit starting altogether, had to get a whole new wiring harness. My bike is an 08. With the new wiring harness things have been great. Of course it could just be the battery, never hurts to check the easy things first. | ||
| Froggy |
I switched to 5w-40 oil for the winter plus got a $350 temperature immune battery, problem solved  Edgydrifter, a trickle charger is not a battery charger, it is designed to prevent the slow battery drain from sitting for a while. Throw it on a real charger and see how it feels after. | ||
| Edgydrifter |
A new harness for an '08? That's wild. Were you able to locate the specific part of the harness that was causing the trouble? | ||
| Edgydrifter |
Froggy--I've been riding the bugger for three or four months almost daily since the "incident," including a few all-day trips, so the battery should be fully charged by now. My charger supposedly does double duty--trickle charging and from-dead charging. It switches from charging to maintenance trickle to avoid overcharging, which is why I just left it hooked up in the warehouse at work over the weekend. I should have been more specific. A good point about the oil. Switching to winter weight definitely helps. | ||
| Chadhargis |
My '06 does the same thing. It's not the battery, as I've replaced it. If I hit the starter, it will begin to crank, hesitate for a split second, then crank right over. | ||
| Dfishman |
Mine(06')has done it for 21000 miles.I ain't worried! | ||
| Pso |
MY 06 has done it for along time. | ||
| Supertoon |
Wow, glad I wasn't the only one.... I was thinking about sellin' it  | ||
| Ulykan |
My 08XT does it too. Maybe I'd better get rid of it before it won't start at all.  | ||
| Maximum |
My '06 started that around 10,000 miles, but mine progressively got worse until I had my stator replaced at around 19,000 miles. With around 35,000 now...the symptom has not returned. | ||
| Hangontight |
From my experience with my Uly and my Sportsters that I had before, that's a common thing to happen. Basically, you have a big 45 degree v-twin which is hard for the starter to get rotating when one of the pistons is at full extension...that's where the momentary hesitation comes from. | ||
| Skinstains |
Will someone make a kickstarter for these things already, I've been waiting for years. | ||
| Froggy |
Kick start? They are next to impossible to push start, I think Chuck Norris would need a round house kick to start it then. | ||
| Tootal |
Be thankful that this happens, it means you have compression! Sometimes the engine stops at the bottom of the compression stroke and it doesn't get a running start to get past the compression causing a little more strain on the starter. They all do that!  | ||
| Dfishman |
Froggy?..Have you ever kickstarted an ironhead sporty? | ||
| Froggy |
I cant even kick my 80cc yamaha 2 stroke with compression release. | ||
| Mad_doctor |
If they made a kickstart for this bike, I would be the first in line to buy one. Being an OLD, old schooler, I live to kick a motorcycle. it just don't get no better. | ||
| Fastmag |
I helped a friend build a 1969 kick only magneto Sportster. That baby was a bitch to start. It would bite you every chance it got. | ||
| Mayerhd |
Edgydrifter - Actually it was all warranty work, my dealer pulled the old harness and sent it in to Buell, (at least that's what they told me), so I don't actually know what the cause was. They did say it had something to do with the grounding. But as I said before with the new harness I haven't had any problems, it may stop on the compression stroke from time to time making it a little harder to start but no worries. Oh, and as per the manual I switched to 10w40 for the colder months, helped tremendously. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
My 2008 cranks slow and takes off too. My old X1 always cranks quickly. Did they change the starters for the 2008? My uly has over 10,000 on it now and hasn't eve failed to start though once or twice I had to hit the button more than once to get it over the compression. I already checked my battery terminals and stuff. Beats me. Should I whine to the dealer? | ||
| Paul56 |
My 06 has done the exact same thing since new. If it doesn't spin past the tight spot immediately I release the button and wait for the fuel pump and check engine light to cycle then try again. It almost always spins through on the second attempt. I don't try to power through on the first try to avoid burning the brushes and commutator in the starter. I also always crank with the headlight on high beam to prevent my HID low beam from striking twice. I figure there are only so many starts available to the controller and lamp. I happened to check the open circuit voltage of the OEM battery the other day after sitting unused for a day: 12.7v. For a regular lead-acid battery that would be very good. Not sure about the glass mat variety. | ||
| Hooper |
There's always the washer-on-the-battery-terminal trick to keep the terminal bolts from bottoming out and preventing a good connection...that worked for me for a little while, but the hesitant start is back, and it's sometimes a little bit scary when you're far from home. It's partially the cold, but I'm thinking it might me my aging battery and the stator issue mentioned above. Once you run the bike for awhile, it always starts light a champ. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
Starting hesitation is not an 'always' issue, just sometimes. Thus far, the bike (08 Uly) has never failed to start. I did check the battery, first thing in the morning, before starting. According to the chart in the owner's manual, the battery is at 100%. I suspected a ground problem, that is why I cleaned the ground connections at the battery and subframe. If I remember tomorrow morning, I am going to run a voltmeter between the battery ground terminal and the engine. See if much of a differential develops during starting. Mark | ||
| Tginnh |
My '06 does the same thing. It's not the battery, as I've replaced it. If I hit the starter, it will begin to crank, hesitate for a split second, then crank right over. Mine too. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
42f this morning. Prior to starting, the battery checked at 12.68v. Good to go. I connected an analog volt meter between the battery ground terminal and the upper housing screw of the starter. During the start, voltage drop was only about .5v at the peak. Naturally, because I was checking this morning, I did not get much of a hesitation. Nothing to worry about. It sounds like this is a pretty common starting phenomenon. Mark in Arizona | ||
| Geopatr |
My 06 does the same thing. But sometimes it seems little worse and my clock and trip meter reset!!  | ||
| Mark_weiss |
If the meters reset, the battery voltage is dropping too low during starting. Low voltage can cause all manner of ignition and FI problems, further complicating starting. If you had a BMW, this would cause the ABS to fault. Mark in Arizona (Message edited by mark_weiss on January 14, 2009) | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
My 2008 has never reset the clock/trips. I think they added a little capacitor to the instrument cluster since I disconnected and reconnected the battery for a few seconds at one point and they didn't reset. | ||
| Armymedic |
Just switched to Rotella T 5W-40 syn oil. Starts and runs much better with the winter temps here in Utah. | ||
| Dr_greg |
My '06 did the same thing; new battery cured it completely. | ||
| Cyclone8u |
Check your grounds again. Mine ('08) did it from day one. In fact the dealer put a new batter in the day I picked it up because he "didn't like the way it was starting". It never started as well as the M2, I just chalked it up to being newer and tighter. About 5 months later, it started particularly hard so I shut the bike off at the end of my road to make sure it was going to restart OK. I was greeted with nothing but clicks. Ran home got the jumper cables and got the bike back home. Shut it off one more time and tried to restart, this time I was greeted with the distinct smell of burning wires. Yep, the fuel pump was the best path to ground and couldn't take the amperage. Starting current 1, fuel pump wiring 0. The grounding from the battery to the subframe sucks a$$!!! Even after scuffing the frame and the head of the bolt down to new metal, the problem started coming back a couple months later. I've since run a 4 gauge ground wire from the battery negative terminal directly to the engine case, hopefully that keeps me from smoking any more wiring harnesses! (Message edited by cyclone8u on January 17, 2009) |
