Hi guys,

The bike is a 2000 f4 and I laid it down at 5mph. Now, the bike wont start. After it first happened it would click but not turn over, so I thought "well it must be flooded, ill let it sit and try it again later." Got back to the bike after about 2-3 hours and the same thing, will click... sounds like it wants to start for a second then nothing, just more clicking. Happened yesterday at 430, tried a 2nd time at about 7. Jump to this morning at 8am, sat on it, flipped up the kickstand, made sure the engine kill switch was disengaged, held the clutch in and tried it again, nothing. Same as the 2nd time i tried. Will click, sounds like it wants to start with a weak (struggling) sound for about 1 second then nothing. So far, it will not get past that point.
The battery is new, replaced it last week. When the bike went down, the front right blinker snapped off and the wires are exposed, im thinking i didnt blow a fuse or short anything since the lights come on, blinkers/brake lights still work, dash still lights up and stays lit.

Im stumped, I thought it was flooded before because a neighbor knocked it over and it took about an hour or two before it would start again. Pretty much the same symptoms are happening now as before...

Anyone help a brotha out? Thanks everyone!!!!

 

Is the starter turning it over really weakly, as in slowly enough for it to not be able to catch and start?

If so: Give it a jump start from a car battery, just be real careful with the jumper cables, don't want to touch the + anywhere on the frame.
If that doesn't work: Pull the sparkplugs real quick and inspect them, with the sparkplugs still removed let the engine crank over a couple times (put a rag over the sparkplug holes so you don't spray any gas or oil all over the place).
If after doing that and reinstalling the spark plugs the bike still won't start you have a much bigger problem on your hands [:@]

Also, you may want to just double check that your tank has gas in it, and that your petcock is set to flow gas, someone that knows about bikes may have switched it off when you went down just as a preventative measure.

Let us know what you come up with

 

No one touched the bike besides myself, so im sure the petcock didnt get turned off, but thats something i will look into.

As for the starter.. when i press thestarter button, itclicks and then it gives the "rrr.."sound but itsreally weak and after (literally) 1-2 seconds it stops (or dies).Upon keeping the button depressed, it clicks fast and rapidly but nothing happens after it gives the struggling rrr sound. Im not familiar with bike engines (as you may have noticed), more so cars, but to me (and i may be wrong, so please correct me if i am) it sounds like the starter is having trouble getting the thing to turn over and start.

Too bad i'm at work for another 4 hours, so im going to try it again then. And if nothing happens, try the jump.... sweet..... [:@]

 

If the starter is able to turn the motor over a couple times before it starts going "rrrr..." then it sounds like your battery is low enough that it's not putting out enough amps to crank it over. But, if you try to jump it and itwon't turn over at allit's possible some fluid of some sort leaked down into a cylinder while it was tipped over, and it's somewhat hydrolocked. In which case, do like I said and pull the spark plugs out, then when you crank it over it will blow anything that was in there right out the spark plug hole (Note: I do mean it will BLOW it all out, have rags over the holes and nearby to clean up the aftermath). I'll keep checking back here as often as I can (working on getting my bike back on the road), so post up if you run into any problems.

 

Turns out the battery needed a jump. I just replaced it with a brand new one a week or two ago... odd, looks like im going to the store to get a new battery for a backup! Thanks for your help!

 

If your battery is dead that soon after putting in a new one do some diagnostics on your stator and rectifier, if either of those two are on their way out or already dead it will cause your battery to die really quickly.