Starting Anomaly

[tinytrains]

During the 11 months eleven months I have owned my bike, this has happened several times. If I stall the engine at a light (my fault) but when I hit the starter with the bike in gear, and clutch pulled in, the engine makes about one revolution and stops.

Release the starter button, press it again, it does the same thing.

Finally, I put it in neutral, release the clutch, and it spins over and starts right up.

I can not reproduce it at will. Kill the engine, pull in the the clutch, and it restarts in gear, no problem. It only seems to happen when I stall, although yesterday, I killed it by putting the side stand down, and got the same spin-and-stop while in gear. Went to neutral, and if fired right up.

The clutch seems to fully disengage as you can easily push it in gear by pulling in the clutch, and no creep at a stop.

The bike was built in Oct 2008, and I bought it new in Nov 2009. I thought about the battery, but it has done this since I bought it.

Any Ideas?

Thanks,
Scott

[goo]

kick stand switch contacts dirty/faulty?

[tinytrains]

kick stand switch contacts dirty/faulty?

The Kickstand has only been involved once, and that does not explain the one revolution and stop with the starter.

Thanks,
Scott

[deilenberger]

Sounds like either a defective starter, or a defective battery. Good article on greasing the starter in this months MOA - courtesy of Paul Glaves (the starters are the same, even though he did it on an R1150RS..)

[mvk]

I had a similar problem in that, often (but not every time), just pulling in the clutch would not enable the starter motor to turn - I had to go to neutral with the clutch out. I should have checked it myself but general ennui took over, so eventually I just asked the mechanic at a regular service to check the switch at the clutch lever(adjustable I understand?). It has worked perfectly since.

This is the easiest thing to try first but unfortunately I am at work so can't check my manual on how to make the adjustment. Wiser folk than me on this forum can perhaps explain this.

The more fun alternative is to go for a big handful of throttle at every set of lights, avoiding stalling and alleviating any residual ennui...

[tl440]

I've had trouble with the clutch switch as well. The shop replaced it at the last service.
dge

[tinytrains]

thanks for the feedback.

The one turn and stop, sounds like starter or battery, but is never a problem in neutral.

The clutch switch fits, but it should either turn or not, not the one turn and stop.

I will do more testing.

Thanks,
Scott

[Rocketair]

I had a pretty similar issue on my 07, definitely the same symptoms, one turn stop, cough. I would occasionally see better results if pulling in the clutch, which was just a red herring in the end.

Dealer tried two new batteries, checking sensors etc... and long story short the starter was replaced and hasn't happened since (about a year now.)

It's been a while now, but i remember thinking that many of the incorrect solutions probably stopped me from figuring out the real issue. Putting in a fully charged new battery, or pulling the clutch in 20x, seemed to make it just easy enough so the starter would get past the first crank. It would start fine for the next 5 times and then boom I'd be stranded.