E-start

[dirtyboy]

I replaced the brushes in my start motor. I also replaced all the bushing for the start drive, greased the gears and lightly oiled the bendix. The starter will only turn over fast enough when the bike is really warmed up and in Neutral.

So I think battery or starter motor. Any thoughts?

[thirtyseven]

That doesn't seam to be a very reliable motorcycle you have there, what brand is it exactly?

[steve-o]

DB,

I had a similar experience with mine and it was the battery. Thankfully it was a warranty item, as my brand of bike and your's too actually includes a warranty beyond 30 feet or thirtyseven seconds. I still usually start the bike by foot for the first one of the day to taek it easy on the battery.

If you don't have a load teste, CW has on and they'd check it for you!

[steve-o]

That doesn't seam to be a very reliable motorcycle you have there, what brand is it exactly?

How well is your electric starter working? Oh ya, it doesn't have one! Sucks to be you.

[axel99]

I had the sanme issue on a differnt brand of bike. The battery was only a year old and I assumed it must be the 5 year old, well used starter. Removed the starter (which required the removal of the cylinder on a 4 stroke ) every thing was in good shape. New battery and all good. I guess vibration and heat can really shorten the life of a quality battery. One of those fancy turntech batteries will be the next replacement for me.

With all the cash thirtyseven is saving on batteries and smokes, mabye he will upgrade. To a newer "Heee Heeee" yammer hammer.

[crazy2wheeler]

I had that problem as well. After buying a new battery it was clear the problem is not the battery. Btw I have a load tester for batteries as well.

[justinKX]

i would say its the batt.. hook jumper cables to it and to a car or soemthing try turnin it over if its normal then its the batt... i wouldnt do this too much tho cause im sure a 12v car and 12v bike batt are different amps, so just test it a few times. thats how i disgnosed the problem on my zx9.. the reason it works well when warm is cause your batter gets charged while driving. when it sits for awhile it loses some juice, then once u get goin it charges again.. i had same problem.

[crazy2wheeler]

If you really wanna know get an amp meter and see how many amps the starter is pulling. As they (these ones anyway) get older they start requiring waaayyyy more power just to turn them, and provide less torque. (my experience, anyway).
D.

[dirtyboy]

I charge the battery fully before I go out.

As for the amperage, I think it is great because the voltage on the battery drops to 10v when cranking. I'm going to swap out the battery and report back.

[dirtyboy]

Swapped out the battery for a known good 6AH battery with very similar results. Seems it must be the starter motor as you hinted to crazy2wheeler. Calling cycleworks now, and have a starter motor ready for pick-up. Cycleworks rocks!

[crazy2wheeler]

Swapped out the battery for a known good 6AH battery with very similar results. Seems it must be the starter motor as you hinted to crazy2wheeler. Calling cycleworks now, and have a starter motor ready for pick-up. Cycleworks rocks!

Will this the 3rd new third new starter you've had on that bike?? (ie. second time you've had to replace it)?

[dirtyboy]

I just loosened up the Crown wheel cover (3 bolts) and it turns over nicely. The weird thing is after tightening it up again it still works fine. Maybe a new gasket there is order and double checking my shim job.

Checked KTMTalk and they seem to only replace the start motor when the gear is shot. So perhaps the starter motor is fine. I was measuring the resistance on the armature and it is consistent at 0.5 ohms between the contacts. There isn't anything else left in there.

[steve-o]

I just loosened up the Crown wheel cover (3 bolts) and it turns over nicely. The weird thing is after tightening it up again it still works fine. Maybe a new gasket there is order and double checking my shim job.

Checked KTMTalk and they seem to only replace the start motor when the gear is shot. So perhaps the starter motor is fine. I was measuring the resistance on the armature and it is consistent at 0.5 ohms between the contacts. There isn't anything else left in there.

You know, I was talking with another fella and he said that he had heard the same thing regarding the amount of torque on those bolts and their affect on the performance of the starter. Check KTMtalk (I think) for more on that for confirmation.

[justinKX]

hmmm

[dirtyboy]

So I picked up the new start motor today. Slapped it on and it turns over like a brand new bike.

I can feel the difference in force required to turn my old starter motor vs new starter motor.