electric start voltage drop

6leafclover wrote:

...if it was slipping it seems like it would spin faster if anything

I know that the starter is practically perfect when it isn't put under load. But so often I've seen them show signs of wear during certain bench tests if it were going to fail under load.

Anyway, it's interesting that you say that. I didn't think anything of this until now, but I'll push the start button and it tries to crank slowly 4 out of five times or so. That one other time it sounds like a 'fast zipper'. Maybe it is slipping. although, maybe it's not slipping because of a bad clutch but because there is just too much stress on the starter with only 3 volts and/or the starter is indeed failing under load. Would it slip under those conditions?... because that might answer a lot.

1) Is your battery OK?
- Has it been fully charged with an appropriate motorcycle charger?
- Has each cell been tested with a motorcycle sized hydrometer?

2) If you jumper to your car battery do you get the same symptoms?
- If yes, then the problem is on the bike... the solenoid, the heavy gauge starter wires or the starter is failing under load.
- If no, then the problem is in the batter or the heavy gauge wire to the starter. Also, the fault could be high resistance on the ground return side (- battery to engine ground).

Best of success.

PS
Add your year, model and location to you signature to get the best responses and it's considered real friendly to.
Bill

I don't have a way (or at least know of one) to test the cells. But I did use 3 different charged batteries reading the proper voltage.

Let's go with option number one - "If yes." There wasn't a difference with the car battery at all. First thing tomorrow, I'm going to see if there is a shop who can put the starter under a good load test for me.

At the same time, I will be checking the resistance on all the wires just in case - their connections have been striped clean and tightened well already. I'll be back with results - Thanks riders!

And thanks Bill! - notice my cool signature now?

This issue is now solved, in case anyone has a similar problem:

So, after going through 3 or 4 different batteries which I thought were all fine, I just purchased a new one. With the new battery, extra clean and secure connections all around, new gas, and some priming, she started fine and has been running good for quite a while now.... minus the new clutch problem If I can't get that fixed I'll be back on another thread for some help

The low voltage drop was due to my testing. All of the connections had good resistance. I failed to think that there could be an invisible layer of corrosion coating the engine itself messing up my tests. **So clean EVERYTHING**