| Author | Message | ||
     Precbsed |
Recently I've noticed a significant delay when I hit the start button on my '03 XB9S before the engine begins to turn. After a brief delay of a second or two the starter does begin to turn and the engine starts. Frequently however both tripometers as well as the low fuel tripometer all zero out when this happens. Also the first time it happened it sounded like something arched under the seat. The battery is at full charge, the terminals are tight with no corrosion, and the ground is secure. Any ideas? | ||
| Spectrum |
This happened on mine, turned out to be loose battery terminals. Clean and tighten them, I bet it goes away. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Use loc-tite on the battery terminals as well. | ||
| Chainsaw |
Any ideas? When mine did it, it was a sign of an undercharged battery caused by a failing charging system. I hope it's loose terminals!  | ||
| Pwnzor |
Having loose battery terminals will eventually cause your charging system to fail if the situation is not rectified. Get it? RECTIFIED!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHhahahahAHAHahhahahahaaahaha hahahaaa ha hehheh Seriously, though. That's for real. one of my customers manufactures plating rectifiers. BIG ones that require a gooseneck trailer and a very large forklift or a crane to move, which is about the only reason I know anything about rectifiers.} (Message edited by pwnzor on August 27, 2006) | ||
| Xb9ser |
Do you have original battery? I had to change mine in may. 3 years old and a buddy with a V rod bought the week after mine also replaced his in may. they use same battery. Mine acted just like yours. | ||
| Skyguy |
battery, stator, regulator. | ||
| Gearhead |
I can tell you with almost 100% correctness that it is none of the above. I think you have two problems. First check out your start switch. Does the bike sit outside alot? There could be corrosion within the switch. Has the bike ever been hit? Is this the original gauge cluster? The reason I ask this is the race bike I'm prepping did exactly the same thing (tripmeters) and before I began stripping it down, I asked my techs to check it out. They found nothing, no codes, no wiring problems, nothing. I do know that it was hit in the front and the gauge cluster is not original to the bike so I can only conclude that there is an internal problem inside the gauge cluster itself. I, too, replaced the battery with no improvement on the tripmeter problem but it did start better! | ||
| Skyguy |
Gearhead, My bike went through the whole reset thing. It only happened when the battery got low. Later it was the stator, again battery low. | ||
| Precbsed |
The bike is always garaged and the battery is only 2 months old. I cleaned the terminals and connectors again this time with a stiff wire brush and made sure they were good and tight when I put them back on but it did not help. I then noticed that two of the bolts that were removed when the passenger pegs were eliminated also hold the metal plate under the battery securely to the frame. I re-attached the two bolts and used lock nuts on one side to securely hold the plate in place against the frame. So far I've started it at least a half dozen times without any problem - no resets or delays. | ||
| Sparky |
My 9R was having a starting problem a couple weeks ago too. It would sometimes clickety-click, hesitate for a second, then start up and, after starting, the clock & tripmeters would reset. It's a daily driver on the original battery, but gets battery tendered when the bike is not ridden for a couple days. Thinking the battery was about shot, I decided to try a last resort battery clean-up after reading a different BadWeB post on this subject. I noticed the battery posts were kinda dark gray and not shiny where the lugs attach. I have 2 extra lugs per battery post for a thermostat and battery tender cables. The cable lugs that connect there were dirty, not shiny clean either. So, figuring that lead oxide and dirt is probably more of an insulator than conductor, I proceeded to wire brush them & the lugs shiny clean, and reassembled everything. To my surprise, the bike not only started up eagerly, but seemed to come alive with snappier throttle response and, seemingly with new-found power. So now I'm thinking that the lackluster throttle response the bike exhibited after my last 10K service (before the Laguna Seca trip) was not due to a botched TPS reset, but due to a somewhat higher than normal resistance in the battery lead connections. My theory is that the coil was probably getting a little less than the nominal 12 to 15 VDC resulting in lower than normal high-voltage to fire the TorqueMaster spark plugs which require a healthy ignition system. I wish I would have done some 12V testing before and after I cleaned the terminals to verify this theory. Anyhow, the bike is a hoot to ride again. It's snappy and has revitalized power from down low to redline. Best of all, it didn't cost a thing. I thought I'd share my findings. Thanks, Sparky | ||
| Swordsman |
Yup, mine had this same problem after getting it back from Stn. Mtn. Noticed that there was a 1/2 second delay when I started it, and the trip meters and clock would reset. After the 4th time, it clickity-clicked, and wouldn't start. Upon inspection, one of the battery terminal bolts had loosened, and it wasn't making a good connection. Apparently it had been that way for awhile, because the washer had melted to the bolt from arcing! Replaced the washer, tightened it down, and everything went back to working properly. Gearhead, what in the world makes you think everyone else that has had the SAME problem (battery related) is wrong, and you're single random occurrence is the REAL problem??? That's just not good logic...  ~SM | ||
| CJXB |
Recently I've noticed a significant delay when I hit the start button on my '03 XB9S before the engine begins to turn. After a brief delay of a second or two the starter does begin to turn and the engine starts. Frequently however both tripometers as well as the low fuel tripometer all zero out when this happens. Mine has been doing exactly that recently, I posted here and someone suggested cleaning the connections with wire brush and tightning them and checking the ground, which I did. Still does the same thing, may be the battery, I have a 2004 XB9S with about 12,000 miles on it, wouldn't think it would be the battery tho ?? It makes me insane, not only to worry is it going to start when I'm somewhere, but I use the trip meter to determine when to get fuel !! Be interesting to see how other's problems were resolved !! | ||
| Pwnzor |
So many phantom-type problems can be traced ultimately back to the battery terminals that it's almost daft not to start there when checking ANY electrical problem. | ||
| M1combat |
Agreed Pwnzor... IMO, batteries in motorcycles should be replaced every two years. A battery that's hard to charge will take out a Stator, and stators are difficult to swap... | ||
| Bakadoh |
Hey... after my R to S tail swap I'm having this problem... better go out and clean those terminals!! (Message edited by bakadoh on August 28, 2006) | ||
| Swordsman |
To the people who have checked their connections and are still having problems: have you checked the OTHER end of the cables? Maybe something's working its way loose back there...? ~SM | ||
| Bakadoh |
Well I just went out to my bike and checked the connections and my positive was loose enough to wiggle. I'll have to post later if this was a solution or not. But as my bike was running perfect before my R to S tail swap, and I've checked every connection (with the exception of the battery) about a hundred times because of this reset problem, the only thing I could figure was the seat lock bar causing a short with the R tail light wire cluster. I've got a S tail light cluster coming (thanks Thad!). I'm really hoping this will fix this last nagging problem. And it's easy enough to check/fix, might as well start there... and if it doesn't solve the problem move on. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Clean them, loctite the threads, and torque between 6 to 8 ft-lbs. Bye bye gremlins. | ||
| Sparky |
Until you get the problem fixed, CJ, you can use the total miles to keep track of mileage; it doesn't reset. | ||
| Gearhead |
Sorry, guys, my intent was not to step on anyones toes. It's just that I've been trying to sort this problem out for awhile and between my tech and what I knew about the bike's history we have concluded there is a problem within the gauge pack itself but I will double check the battery connections at the starter and where the negitive cable attaches to the frame. Believe me I hope the fix is this simple! And if I've made an error, I'll be the first to admit it. | ||
| Fullpower |
HUH HUH HUH.... he said RECTifier. huh huh. Delayed cranking and tripmeter resetting is a strong indicator for insufficient cranking amps. the simplest cure for such a condition is installation of a NEW BATTERY. | ||
| Bakadoh |
Well after tightening my battery cables, my bike fired up better than ever. This may not solve everyone's problem, but it sure solved mine (knock wood). Now if I could get the air bubble out of my rear brake line... | ||
| CJXB |
Until you get the problem fixed, CJ, you can use the total miles to keep track of mileage; it doesn't reset. DUH !!! I may be educated, but sometimes I seem to have no common sense. I guess because I’ve always used the trip meter (easy to reset) it never occurred to me to use the total miles and do a little simple addition, and I’m an accountant so it wouldn’t be difficult, I think !!!  we have concluded there is a problem within the gauge pack itself I can see where someone would think that, but if there was a problem with the gauge pack, that shouldn’t affect the delayed cranking suddenly, right ?? I think I’ve met you before, Daves friend from Waterloo? I can’t imagine you stepping on anyone’s toes, you’re too polite !! I think I'm agreeing with fullpower, going to call Hal's and see if they have a battery !! | ||
| Pwnzor |
I replaced my battery needlessly. Turns out, it was the pesky battery cables. I can't stress enough the importance of loc-tite on the threads. A) Bike vibrates a lot B) Battery terminals are lead. C) Bolts going into it are steel. D) Over time, the lead threads will open up a bit and it will become more difficult to tighten the terminals all the way E) Loc-tite solves this before it happens. I'm happy with my new battery, but I'll be getting at least 5 years out of this one instead of 2 like the last one. |
