My '87 1000f developed a intermittent problem with starting a few months ago that has recently become a constant problem.

When I attempt to engage the starter, I hear a loud buzzing coming from the vicinity of the starter relay. At first if I waited, or tried again, the starter would engage perfectly fine and the bike starts right away. Now all I get is the buzzing, with the very rare turn over now and again.

I can bump start the bike reliably enough. If I turn the starter switch to off I get the same condition, although obviously the bike will no longer bump start. My model hurricane does not require the side stand to be up. The neutral switch turns on the green light in the dash, bu I haven't tested further.

What does a loudly buzzing starter relay mean? I haven't found mention of this in the Haynes manual or on any threads here. My conditions do not resemble in any way the videos of the alternator damper going bad. So I don't think that's my problem.

 

I should also mention that I checked the battery connections and they were all tight, as was the ground cables attachment point to the frame.

However! While I was testing it yesterday I thought I saw a small spark from the negative battery cable when I pushed the start button.

 

probably a dead battery.

 

bad ground (you seemed to have that figured out already) or wonky starter relay or both ....imo

 

It sounds to me like a old or worn out battery, jump start it and see if it fixes the problem. Need to fix the ground issue first.

 

everything that happened to you ive had happen, just test the battery voltage. easy and free

 

Thanks guys. I would have tested the voltages already but my multimeter was far away from where I parked the bike. I'll test that asap, and may just order a MBTX14AU for good measure. The battery in the bike is about 3 years old, and I don't have a convenient way to trickle charge it(I park it in a public garage).