| Author | Message | ||
     Lousirider |
I know there are alot of topics on this,but I was wondering by now has anyone had an absolute fix for the hesitation in starting. I did the "washers under battery bolts" which worked for a couple of cranks. Now it seems to be worse than ever. Any thoughts? | ||
| Panhead_dan |
load test your battery | ||
| Gamdh |
I've posted this a few times.. mine did the same thing. Even when I replaced my stator, VR and battery (grounded stator).. it still hesitated when starting. I did the tech tip 339..which shows you how to clean up the ground point under the seat.. near the fuse block. Once I did that, the hesitation went away on mine. In general.. clean up all your ground points. Many here also suggest star washers. (Message edited by gamdh on June 07, 2009) | ||
| Lousirider |
thanks Gamdh, now that you said that..I found your post in my favorites..sometimes its easier to repost(sorry) than get drowned in the sea of searches. I find myself losing direction and moving on to another topic. This forum is full of information, its like my other Bible..  | ||
| Choyashi |
Yeah, when it hesitates just turn it off and restart. It should not hesitate a second time. If it does, stop it and start it again. Now the odds are in your favor! When the pistons stop in just the right position, it will fire right up with out hesitation! The more times you restart it the greater the chances of a smooth hesitation free start. (Odds are better then 2 in 5) | ||
| Svh |
That would be a fast track to a plug replacement. | ||
| Gamdh |
Lousirider.. no problem.. I know what you mean. Choyashi.. This hesitation is different than just getting the pistons in the right position. Its hard to describe unless your bike has done it and its fixed. Mine did it from day one. It would start to turn over and then it would simply stop (or make no noise for a half a second)...then it would kick in and start. It seemed to be a little worse in the cold.. I thought it might be my battery etc... but never replaced it until my Stator failed. At that point I replaced the Stator/VR and battery. The hesitation was still there. It did not go away until I cleaned that ground as described in the TT. Too be honest.. it surprised me that something that simple made a difference. Of course while I was there I pulled the battery tray and did the procedure to all the mount points... figured it couldn't hurt. On my bike, there is an absolute difference on how it starts since I did this. just my experiance....as I'm definitely not an electrical expert. And as SVH points out.. its not a good idea to stop/start this engine like that. (Message edited by gamdh on June 07, 2009) | ||
| Alershka |
I'm not sure if this is the same issue or not but I've been having problems as of late when my bike is warm, it won't start until it cools down. I brought it in to the dealer and they saw the problem when I rode it in but then they could not reproduce it later on. They had it for a while and after they could not get the bike to "not start" they gave it back to me. At the time, it had only happened once to me on the road so I didn't get the heat issue. This weekend, I rode out to the dealer, which is a 45 mile ride, since they had a Buell demo day. I took the two 1125's out, did some shopping then got back out on the road. No problems starting. About a mile from my house, the bike stalled and I couldn't get it to start. I pushed it to the side of the road and it started on the third push. Got it to my house, turned it off then tried for about 5 minutes to start the bike. It cranked but it just would not start. I left the bike sit for 30 minutes, and it turned right over. Any thoughts? | ||
| Gamdh |
It does not sound like the same problem. The bike never failed to start regardless of temp etc... It just had a consistant hesitation when starting. Not sure what else it could be and I don't recall seeing any threads with a similiar issue. | ||
| Werewulf |
ive owned a bunch of buells and they all start like that from time to time... have you ever taken the starter switch housing on the handlebar appart? that is one cheep azz setup.. the starter switch is just a couple of metal contact buttons that are held together by a piece of plastic.. i took mine appart and put some grease on them, as they already had a pit sort of like the old distributor points used to do... it is shameful looking... if my bike wasnt on warranty, i would have to put a more sustantial setup on it... (Message edited by werewulf on June 08, 2009) | ||
| Hooper |
Alershka...your stallout problem sounds like the washer fix...adding a couple small washers to the battery terminals, because the bolts are too long and are bottoming out. My '06 did the same kind of stalling yours did one night. I eventually got it home, pulled the seat off, and noticed that the washers were gone (it had recently been to the dealer for service, and they must have remove them). Give it a try...lots of topics on this site for the washer-solution. | ||
| Alershka |
I installed the washers last night. I rode into work then tried to start it up when I got here. It started. It was cool this morning. I went out at lunch. When I rode for about 20 mins, I turned off the bike. The bike would not start. It cranks but it just doesn't seem to start. I ate lunch came back out. It started on the first push. Back at work, same thing, it won't start. I'm assuming that when I head out at the end of the day, it will be the same thing: it wll start then not start when I get home. I have to assume that the bike is getting hot, something is expanding and losing contact. When its cool it doesn't have any problems. This one is going to be a bear to trouble shoot. Need to keep the engine hot to find the problem. I got rid of my 2000 S3 for this one because of an electrical problem. It was under warranty but I couldn't handle the lack of reliability. Now I'm back in the same boat. HELP!!! | ||
| Mnrider |
If it cranks but wont start it has to be ign. or fuel. If the fuel pump runs when you turn on the key then I would suspect the cam sensor is acting up. Some have said their seat was contacting the ecm and damaged the connectors also. You could also try wiggling the relays when its acting up. | ||
| Sanchez |
My bike hesitates on starts sometimes, but it's just because the battery is weak. I left my lights on once and drained it dead. These batteries aren't meant to be deep cycled like that, and they just aren't the same after you charge them back up. It's been like that for well over a year, though, and probably at least 15k miles. It hasn't failed to start yet, so I'm not too worried about it. | ||
| Alershka |
If the fuel pump is that "whinnnnneeee" that happens when I hit the ignition switch, then yes, the fuel pump is running. I can't vouch for whether it is actually delivering fuel but it does run whenever I turn on the ignition switch. I mentioned the seat to the service manager since I have a 06 with the low seat but he didn't offer an opinion. When I took delivery of the bike, it had the standard seat. I ordered the low seat and did the install myself. However, when I went to install the new "block" I noticed that I already had the same type installed. When I first notices this as a problems, I did the old "jiggle the wires" thing and tried moving the fuse box around. It didn't get me to a start any faster. I wish I could pin point when this started but it is a sort of unique set of circumstances that are required to reproduce the problem. The engine has to be hot and I need to try to restart the bike almost immediately. In cold weather, the bike never got hot enough for me to make this happen and most rides I'm off the bike for at least 20 minutes, allowing it to cool down enough. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
The reason I said to load test your battery is because mine was doing that and I did everything common sense and suggestions from this site said to do. I even ran a jumper wire from batt neg to starter. Nothing fixed it. The batt checked out fine with a voltmeter. I finally just slipped in a new battery and the problem was gone. I've never seen a battery act like that. Maybe it's unique to the AGM type batteries. | ||
| Alershka |
My battery is about six months old. I replaced the original one as it left me stranded a couple of times. I now keep the bike on a tender. However, only getting two years or so out of the original battery is making me wonder if I've had issues from way back and now they are presenting in a slightly different way with the root cause being the same: something is wrong with my starter. I'm still under my warranty so I want the shop to fix this. How should I steer them? Supposedly they were in contact with the factory before and they came up empty. Seems like reading here on the forums there are a few places they should have checked that they didn't. Thanks again. | ||
| Thunderbox |
OK here's whats happening with the Buell starting hesitation. The starter is a Japanese Denso design. It is a heck of a starter but it has a weak point. That is the plunger and the 2 contacts in the plunger housing. These wear out and when they do they don't make great contact. Resulting in resistance which is bad for starting. The good news is for about $24 you can replace the plunger and the 2 contacts. Go to any starter/alternator repair place and purchase the parts from them, take off the starter open the plunger cover and you will see what I am talking about. This is the same design that is on all Harleys and most Jap cars and Chryslers. I have repaired about a 100 of them with this simple procedure. Give it a try. You'll like it when it works better. It is however still very very important to make sure all the other connections are good also. If you have tried everything else then do the procedure above to return that Buell to like new starting. | ||
| Werewulf |
are these starter parts an upgrade, or just replacements? those starter button contacts are a potential problem too. i wonder what the difference is in the sportster starter.. they alway fire right up.. i think one of the biggest differences is the the switch housing... if it wasnt for the fact that the uly uses smaller diameter handlebars than the sporty, i would upgrade... the throttle cable could get complicated.. there is a direct starter button that bolts on to your starter, that would eliminate all this... the downside, is that you would have to stick your hand in between the hot headers to use it...ouch! | ||
| Thunderbox |
If you go to a reputable repair facility the parts will be replacement upgrades for sure. I can never remember replacing any of the new ones we have installed. We had one of the police bikes in just on Monday with hesitant starting problems. We checked all the connections and then we pulled the cap of the plunger cover and both contacts and the plunger were worn. We didn't have time to remove the starter to do the repair but we cleaned the contacts up with dental tools and buffed the plunger disc on a wire wheel and when it left it was working like new and no voltage drop. We like to keep the cops happy because we ride a little better than the speed limit most days lol. As far as the starter button is concerned Werewolf I don't think it is causing the hesitant cranking. If the plunger goes in it should start if the contacts are in good repair. (Message edited by thunderbox on June 12, 2009) | ||
| Alershka |
On my ride to the dealer this morning, the engine cut out at 55 mph about five miles from away. With a big truck to my right and a car tailgating me, I had to quickly coast over to the median till traffic cleared. I pushed the bike over to the shoulder and tried to start. No dice. I let it cool for a bit then I was able to start it again after about 15 minutes. About 100 yards later, the bike died again. This scenario repeated itself two more times till the bike would no longer start at all. I disconnected the battery and reconnected, unplugged and reconnected the wires going into the ecm, yanked on every single wire I could grab and yank, nothing would get the bike to start. After about 30 minutes of trying everything, I called the dealer and they came and picked up the bike from the side of the road. At least now, it appears that it's not intermittent so hopefully they will find the problem. | ||
| Alershka |
Just called the dealership. Cam sensor is on order. I can't wait to get the bike back and I'm happy they found the gremlin. |
