Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hi,

I have a 02 VStar 1100 custom. I took the bike in to the shop about 2 weeks ago, because I was haveing problems starting it. After looking at it and testing the battery (all was good), etc., the mechanic decided he would need to get inside and check the Starter and Starter Clutch. 2 weeks and $250 later, I just picked up the bike and this morning the same thing. Won't start. Let me describe what it is doing. When cold. Sometimes it will start right up. Run for a few seconds and then die. It has alway wanted alot of choke, so if I don't pay close attention when it does start it will die. If it does die and I try to restart, all I get is a clunking type noise. It only does it once each time I push the starter. When I plug the bike up to the battery tender after trying to start and this happens, it indicates that the battery is not charged sufficiently. Is it possible that the battery is holding enough charge to start the bike once, but after that it just doesn't have enough to turn the starter clutch and engine over, thus making the clucking noise. I never get the ticking normally associated with a dead battery. Also I just pulled the bike off of the battery tender after a few hours and it started right up. WTH?!?!?! Can anyone offer a suggestion before I take it back to the shop?

Thanks

I'd try a "known good" battery first. Batteries are cheaper than a mechanic.

You can also use some jumper cables to hook the bike up to your car battery and see if you can reproduce the clunk. If it doesn't happen, then you know it's your battery.

You should be able to rule out starter clutch. If the starter clutch were faulty the starter would spin without cranking the engine. I'd start with a new battery.

It's possible you've got a short to ground somewhere that is draining the battery.

I'd start with the "known good" one, and we can work from there if the same thing happens.

If you're hooking up a car battery with jumped cables you need to:
1) positive on car battery
2) positive on bike
3) negative on car
4) negative on bike

Hit bike starter. DO NOT START THE CAR WITH THE BIKE HOOKED UP.

Thanks for the assistance. It ended up being the battery. Evidently one of the cells was bad. The shop put in one from a brand new bike that had been wrecked. They didn't charge me for it, after the $250 for the starter clutch. All seems to be good now. I guess we'll see in the morning when I go to start it up.

Thanks Again

Let us know what happened.

Started up no problems! Hopefully the new battery has fixed the problem. Thanks again for all of the help.

bhawk62000

I'd get on the shops "O Ring" about charging you $250 for a new starter motor when all you needed was an $80 battery.