Worn Starter = Dead Battery?

I took my battery to O'reilly, they had it on a charger all night (I don't have a trickle charger yet). Apparently they can't load test motorcycle batteries, so I just brought it home. Hooked it up, pressed the starter.. Not even one full crank. The battery is completely dead again. I'll take my warranty out on it, hopefully it's still valid, I just got this battery about two weeks ago.

Is the battery the only thing that can be causing this? I don't know what else to check after charging the batterty plus rebuilding my starter.

Pre-note: Forgive my ignorance with these charging systems, I'm used to an alternator and belts.

Could the rectifier be the issue? Is it possible for it to drain the battery as soon as the key goes "on"?

I found a regulator-rectifier single unit on Z1, would it help?

With a known good battery, and the bike starting, at idle, you should see 14.5 volts D.C. at the battery terminal. www.electrosport.com has a good troubleshooting page for the charging system on motorcycles.

This bike is going to be the death of me. I want to take the voltage of the battery while it's running. So I try to push start it. No dice. Jump start.. No dice. The starter seems to catch (this is while jump starting) then it just grinds and grinds and grinds. I thought I fixed that, guess not.

I'm seriously considering replacing the whole ignition system; coils, starter motor, ignition switch, battery, even the regulator/rectifier.

Seems like there has to be a short somewhere causing the battery to discharge. Or you've got a bad battery. The grinding you're hearing is the starter clutch.

So help us out here. When you try to jump start it, you're using what? A car battery? Another MC battery? Hooked to the bike's positive battery lead?

And when you do that, the starter motor turns, but the bike doesn't start? Instead you just hear a grinding (like marbles in a can)?

I am trying to jump start it with a car battery. I have the booster cables hooked up like I normally would, + to +, - to -.

If it's just a short, where would I start looking? I suppose I should go through all the connections and clean them up, like www.electrosport.com/technical-resources.../fault-finding-guide suggests. Thank goodness there are far less wires in a bike than a car.

The starter motor does turn, but it seems weak. It will still catch, occasionally, but then it just grinds away, "like marbles in a can" is a perfect way to describe it.

There's one more issue, non-electrical related, that is adding to the starting issue. Bad carbs. The suckers have never been cleaned, so the bike has always taken awhile to start then needed awhile to warm up. So, I guess I should order a couple carb rebuild kits, some contact cleaner, and a starter clutch rebuild kit.

I'm just having a hard time accepting this. Last week (you know, when the weather was nice), the bike started up just fine! There was no charging issue, no starter issue, just the carbs needing to warm up. Then suddenly.. all this. Forgive all my pouting.

Here's what I'd do...

Remove the starter and starter clutch. With the starter off the bike, hook it up directly to a known good battery via jumper cables (preferably a motorcycle battery). It should spin fast enough that it just about jumps off the table.

Remove and inspect the rollers, caps and springs in your starter clutch. There's definitely something wrong there.

If one of those springs broke, that would explain the marble sound and difficulty starting. It wouldn't explain the dead battery though.

Where'd you get the battery? Any chance of taking it to a motorcycle shop to have it load tested? If not, maybe call other auto part stores and ask if they can load test a motorcycle battery.

The Dreaded Shorting/Intermittent Electrical Problem!


Here is the most basic method I know(Taken from www.kzrider.com by member Patton)

1. Charge your battery and have it load tested if you can. The floating ball hydrometer can be used to check the specific gravity of the charged cells in the battery.

2. Disconnect the Black lead from the (-) Battery terminal... or Red from the (+) Battery terminal, it does not matter which one. Just 1, not both!

3. Connect one of the following test setups in series with the Battery terminal and lead:
3.1 A 12 V light bulb,
3.2 A 12 V test light,
3.3 A 12 V test buzzer or,
3.4 A 12 V horn... you get the idea.

4. With the Ignition Switch OFF, go through your harness and wiggle the wires while looking/listening for the test setup to go on/start buzzing.

5.With the Ignition Switch ON, repeat the test except this time the looking/listening for the test setup to go off/stop buzzing.

6. Be prepared to open the Ignition switch and check/test for solder joint failure and or circuit board micro breaks (don't ask how I know this ).

7. Be prepared to pull the wires out of the Head Light to test for failures at or near the grommet.

8. Be prepared to open the harness at or near the Steering Neck for failures. This is where wires tend to exhibit fatigue due to repetitive movement.

9. Be prepared to open the left and right switch gear to search for rust and or broken parts. CAUTION: watch out for flying springs, ball bearings and stuff. Do indoors on White sheet (again don't ask ).

10. Be prepared to follow the heavy gauge wire from the Starter Solenoid (Relay) to the starter for bare wire exposure. Especially near bends and grommets.

11. If you can reproduce the fault symptom your are pretty much home free. Be prepare to find and repair/replace any internal wire breaks, insulation break downs, exposed wires, rubber grommet failures, etc. Often, shrink tubing will solve the problem temporarily until something better can be done.

12. I use a very good electrical contact cleaner/preservative called De-oxit made by Caig Labs in San Diego Ca. Their website is www.deoxit.com It can be purchased at Radio Shack and any other electronic supply store. I use it on all of my motorcycle’s electrical connectors , in my home entertainment center’s stereo patch cords and cordless phones charging cradles.

So I finally got my battery tested. It was bad. Hopefully that's really all it is, I would be so stoked. I'm still going to do the test MFolks suggested.

Just a quick question. On step 3, you say "Connect one of the following test setups in series with the Battery terminal and lead". Connect the test setup to the connected lead, right? So, if I disconnect the negative terminal, connect my test setup to the positive terminal. Correct? I apologize, I'm still getting used to electrical work

Ok, so I jumped the bike in order to charge the battery (I don't have a trickle charger). Running, it is reading 12 volts. Ignition off it is reading 11.3ish volts. Is this simply because it's a new battery?

freakinbike wrote: Ok, so I jumped the bike in order to charge the battery (I don't have a trickle charger). Running, it is reading 12 volts. Ignition off it is reading 11.3ish volts. Is this simply because it's a new battery?

Battery should have been fully charged before performing this test on the charging system.
Test is of questionable validity absent an already fully charged battery.

Good Fortune!

Patton wrote: Battery should have been fully charged before performing this test on the charging system.
Test is of questionable validity absent an already fully charged battery.

Makes sense. Going along these lines, I did test the battery today after topping it off and charging it for about an hour. 12.3 volts with the key off. It says it should be 12.7, but .4 volts be of any concern?

Another quick question: If this battery does go bad, then something is wrong with my bike. Like I said before, I'm going to do the test described by MFolks, so would the problem be in there? Is there really any way to know?