Hey Gang... I'm new to the forum and thought I'd ask the community for any thoughts about an issue I'm having with my starter (I did some searches and what came up didn't seem to answer my question).

When I turn on the key then press the starter switch, there is a delay between when it's pressed and when the engine turns over. Sometimes it's a second, sometimes its 4 or 5 seconds. It seems to happen mostly when I first fire it up, but also happens sometimes after i've been riding for awhile. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all.

Are there contacts that get corroded? Is it something I can clean, or should I replace? Is this a common problem?

Thanks for any advice...

 

you may want to check your starter relay.

 

Like mentioned it may be your starter relay, but to answer your question. Yes there are contacts in the start button. You can pull the 2 phillip screws out and pull it off the clipon. use some plastic safe electrical cleaner or some fine sand paper to clean the little contacts up. also check your battery terminals a loose connection is common and will cause this.

 

Thanks fellas, I appreciate the help. Sounds like cleaning the contacts is something even a bonehead like me can do... Also, didn't even think about loose battery terminals (such a pain to get to the battery I think I block it out), but that could possibly be it. I've got a line for a charger tapped into the terminals and there's not much room to tighten the screws, so maybe that's backed out a bit. I'll check and report back. Thanks again.

 

How does it run, once it starts? If it runs fine then I doubt it is the battery terminals.

 

Once it starts, no problems running. Also, once it fires, it fires right up... it's just that there's a random delay - mostly when cold, but also happens after a long ride, taking a 30 min break, then starting up again. But it doesn't happen all the time - weird.

Forgive my ignorance, but does the bike need to battery to run once it's started? Probably a stupid question - I'm remembering back to my youth when I could bump start a bike with a dead battery and it would run fine.

 

Yes, it needs the battery to run once it is started. As stated before, look at the starter relay and the contacts in the starter switch. Is there any difference in starting if you push the switch very light vs. much harder?

 

Thanks - re: different pressure on the switch - don't know, I haven't paid attention, but I'll check it out when I get home tonight.

 

you think the 2k1-2k3 is bad to get to the battery?? I'll gladly let you change the battery once on my Pacific Coast (it only requires you to remove something like 9 fairing pieces and still have contortionist skills to get the battery into place).

 

@Xander, cheers mate , I should be thankful I've only got a couple of bolts to yank. I must admit one of smartest things I've done (i don't do many) was to add the charger lead to exit by the rear signals so i could just plug in the charger without taking out the seat. I'm sure that's a standard mod for most but it took me a number of dead battery mornings to figure that one out

I'm old enough to remember when everything was accessible and and you didn't have to have a special tool (and it's usually just for one bolt). I guess giving that up is a decent trade for awesome technology

I'll stop whining now....