Bike will not start when hot!

[jpelton]

Been a long time since I posted. I wrote a few back in early 09 when I purchased Justin Trump's pitbull.

When cool the 06 pitbull fires right up. Take it out for a ride, get it hot, and stop for gas. The bike will not start.

I took it to the local shop that I have had work on the bike in the past (Twin Visionz speed and custom in Obetz, Ohio) and they replaced the starter. The problem continues.

Hit run (red light on ehc)
hit start (green light on ehc)
single ticking sound (no attempt to turn over or click click click)
all the electronics illuminate, the only change I have noticed when I turn the key the speedometer dial does not go the full range and back but only too about 30 mph and back.

At this point I am confined to riding close to home so I will not have to stop for gas with the possibility of being stranded. This is absolutely ridiculous and am looking for some help. :bang::angry:

 

[jpelton]

Forgot to mention. If I give it an hour or so to cool down it will fire up no problem. Feels alot like a girlfriend. If I piss it off, I have to avoid it for an hour or so before I can ride it again.

 

[1BADK9]

Man you just need to buy that scooter some flowers and a nice dinner once in a while.

Oops sorry, that's advice for starting the wrong girlfriend.

Hang in here, someone more mechanically competent will chime in.

 

[Little-Boo]

Been a long time since I posted. I wrote a few back in early 09 when I purchased Justin Trump's pitbull.

When cool the 06 pitbull fires right up. Take it out for a ride, get it hot, and stop for gas. The bike will not start.

I took it to the local shop that I have had work on the bike in the past (Twin Visionz speed and custom in Obetz, Ohio) and they replaced the starter. The problem continues.

Hit run (red light on ehc)
hit start (green light on ehc)
single ticking sound (no attempt to turn over or click click click)
all the electronics illuminate, the only change I have noticed when I turn the key the speedometer dial does not go the full range and back but only too about 30 mph and back.

At this point I am confined to riding close to home so I will not have to stop for gas with the possibility of being stranded. This is absolutely ridiculous and am looking for some help. :bang::angry:

How old is your battery. Take the battery off and take it to a battery shop and have it load tested. I has to put out at lease 12.8 V to get the dog going. If you need a battery go to HD and get one with the hights cold crank power they have on the shelve like 350 or more.

If its not the battery so a search on here "NO START" and you will see what others have done to resolve the issue.

Carlos :loony:

 

[Dezertrider37v]

Little-Boo is right, my Ridgeback has done this to me repeatedly. I checked the battery voltage when hot and it had dropped to 12.2. It's usually 13.4ish when cold. I have charged it before with a car charger and it wont get it fully charged so i broke down and bought the battery tender and got a propper trickle charge and now its fine. Of course my battery is going on 5 years old now.

I ride my dog to work 5 days a week so it stays charged pretty well, but getting a new battery with more cold cranking amps is always a sure thing! (harley softail 84 and up same dimensions)

 

[Macdwn]

Single click your hearing is your compression release. Need to check green wire going to starter when hitting the button. Verify getting 12 volts. Had the same issue awhile back and was due to oil getting in the starter solenoid. Lots of posts on the subject. I've got pics of my entire tear down just haven't had time to put it all together for a thread. Send me a pm if you've got any questions and I will email you what I've got.

 

[BigDogBro1]

Regarding the compression releases....push down on the rubber bulb cover over the CR and feel if the CR is opening and the CR stem moves freely.

Test the battery...12.6 to 12.8 volts minimum at the terminals to be considered good condition off charger at least an hour.

All wire connections on battery are clean and tight.

 

[oldmutt]

I have the same thing. If it is hot and sits for 1 to 2 hours I get a click on the first push and then it spins on the second. If it is cold or sits more then 2 hours it spins fine. I have a new braille battery as of 4/11 and the wire plus. It is so predictable that I just live with it.

 

[BOBE]

I had a simular problem with a 285 cca battery. Switched to a 350 cca battery and problem went away. They say you can now get batteries with up to 450 cca.

 

[jpelton]

Well, I changed out the battery to a 310 cca. Intially the bike started up normally and everything appeared normal headlights and turn signals functioning, tail lights, speedometer, tach, etc.

I brought the bike home. Killed it and then tried to restart it. Sparks at the positive side of the battery. At this time all hell has broken loose. I am able to start the bike without the key in the ignition. The headlight is the only light that will illuminate and will stay on without keys in the bike (oddly enough the hi beam button kills the lights?). All other lights are out. The old saying "why let someone else work on your bike, when you can fuck it up yourself" has really come through in this situation. Any ideas what is going on?

I talked with the local shop. He is saying replace the EHC. Is there any reason to replace the EHC and not go with something else?

 

[oldmutt]

At the first sign of electrical problems I went with the wire plus. Do not put in another EHC.

 

[Shane]

wire plus

 

[lee]

yes don't put a new EHC in it but don't throw any other parts at it until you identify the problem either. Deciding on the EHC being fucked is often just a process of elimination, i.e. everything else checks out so the EHC is the only thing left. If it were me I would want to know on what basis the shop put a new starter in it. Did they guess? Did they give you the old starter back?

Have you checked your charging system? plenty of info on here on how to do that.

 

[awg]

So after you installed a new battery all these new problems started??

 

[RRRUFF]

Well, I changed out the battery to a 310 cca. Intially the bike started up normally and everything appeared normal headlights and turn signals functioning, tail lights, speedometer, tach, etc.

I brought the bike home. Killed it and then tried to restart it. Sparks at the positive side of the battery. At this time all hell has broken loose. I am able to start the bike without the key in the ignition. The headlight is the only light that will illuminate and will stay on without keys in the bike (oddly enough the hi beam button kills the lights?). All other lights are out. The old saying "why let someone else work on your bike, when you can fuck it up yourself" has really come through in this situation. Any ideas what is going on?

I talked with the local shop. He is saying replace the EHC. Is there any reason to replace the EHC and not go with something else?

Sparks are not good. If you haven't already done this, try removing the battery cables, wait, then hook back up to see if this will reset the ehc. If this doesn't work double check all your connections, even the crimps on the connectors, the battery ground where it connects to the starter mount bolt and remove the connectors from the ehc and check for corrosion. With these symptons I would suspect the ehc got fried either from a faulty voltage requlator or when the battery went sparky. These ehc's are very delicate but they do get blamed for other electrical problems. If you decide to go with ehc replacement I would recomment the WirePlus system. Big Dog Preformance I think has an upgraded plug and play replacement but I don't know anything about them.

 

[BigDogBro1]

Well, I changed out the battery to a 310 cca. Intially the bike started up normally and everything appeared normal headlights and turn signals functioning, tail lights, speedometer, tach, etc.

I brought the bike home. Killed it and then tried to restart it. Sparks at the positive side of the battery. At this time all hell has broken loose. I am able to start the bike without the key in the ignition. The headlight is the only light that will illuminate and will stay on without keys in the bike (oddly enough the hi beam button kills the lights?). All other lights are out. The old saying "why let someone else work on your bike, when you can fuck it up yourself" has really come through in this situation. Any ideas what is going on?

I talked with the local shop. He is saying replace the EHC. Is there any reason to replace the EHC and not go with something else?

I just don't understand how you can have sparks at the positive battery terminal and not have ANY loose connections. If everything is as it should be with tight connections, tight wire crimps and all clean connections you should not see sparks. Something is not assembled correctly.

Try disconnecting or pulling the fuse that is in-line with the voltage regulator and see how things react.

Test the battery voltage now across the +/- terminals when disconnected and maybe get it load tested. Could be an internal cell short problem. A good battery will have 12.6 to 12.8 volts across terminals after taken off the charger at least one hour.

 

[Bmarchant]

My brothers bike did this during Laconia bike week. Drove me crazy for two days. Sometimes bike ran without an issue. Get 50 miles from home, bike wont start. He has an older FXST that has that stupid starter solenoid that piggy backs to the starter. Some times it wouldn't turn, so he wanted to replace that.

In the mean time, his battery finally died, and wouldn't hold a charge, so we got a new one. I checked the voltage while the bike was running and it was at 12.2. Service manual said should have around 12.8. I started backwards, from the battery, and when I got to the voltage regulator, I found one of the wires had broke almost completely through. Move the wire, and got 12.8, move it again and 12.2. It was just enough that when not moving, it worked, hit 60 mph, and the wire wouldn't make contact.

I cut, stripped and soldered a new terminal on the wires. All better.

 

[Nukeranger]

:2thumbs:F'ing A well done. That's what I am talking about. Great job figuring out your issue and solving it.