Starting Issues!

Energy One
Utopiapga

Utopiapga

Active Member
OK on another note I have had a visitor in the man cave for the last week or so. Choppergirl has had her 03 Chopper sleeping over trying to figure out why she is having starting issues. We have been trouble shooting her bike for a week now. Starter with a new battery, then due to a Loctite incident I cleaned out all the battery contacts and posts. We then looked to the compression releases, she has both electric and manual releases on hers. Well come to find out the electrical one was wired and then ran improperly causing it to melt against the jug. So she rewired it and ran it correctly and tucked it away with some good ole zip ties!

She also sent her other starter off to Curtis to get it rebuilt thinking the starter was going again. But Curtis emailed her back and said the starter she had was in good shape and maybe just needed to upgrade to a bigger starter. So today after doing some maintenance on it we decided to give it a try and start her up.

Well you guessed it just would not turn over. Acts like either the compression releases aren't working or the new battery is no good. It is very hard turning over and will not turn over hard enough to fire. Going to take new battery in and have it checked..............

but as stated she has an 03 Chopper so any other things to look for?

One other thing we noticed is her ignition module light is not coming on. But even if it was that wouldn't the engine still turn over but just not fire?

anyway any thing we are missing here let us know!:up:
 
Choppergirl

Choppergirl

Street Angels
It is an HD battery 310 CCA. Got it in Daytona Beach while visiting my mother. Purchased it at Bruce Ross Myers Harley Davidson.
 
Th3InfamousI

Th3InfamousI

Administrator
Staff member
Utopiapga said:
she has both electric and manual releases on hers.
Click to expand...
How can you have both manual & electric? Never seen those before. You only got one hole in the head?

I assume since you see wires going into the head they are electrical, which btw is not standard on the 03. Regardless, it's not manual - yes you can push it down manually but it should pop right back up which doesn't do diddly squat to lowering compression on the start. When you hit the start button and if you put your finger on it you should feel the compression releases go down, its very quick. However, since the 03 didn't come standard with them, I would question how they wired it in. If they wired it directly with the starter than they should be open for the entire start cycle (down position) which would be ideal.

I would do as suggested and pull the plugs make sure everything spins over correctly, if yes then proceed to trouble shoot compression releases. Although, a good starter and good battery should turn the motor over without compression releases, as that was standard. Compression releases should just reduce the wear on the starter and battery on start cycles.
 
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Utopiapga

Utopiapga

Active Member
She had them put in. It also has the bubbles on top you can depress and hold if needed. I will pull plugs tonight and turn it over to see what we got.

Thanks everyone!
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Choppergirl

Choppergirl

Street Angels
Hi everyone, just wanted to update this thread in case anyone runs into this issue later down the road. After all that we did trouble shooting the bike it ended up all I needed was to replace my starter with a bigger starter. I sent my starter out to Curtis (Wild Steed Werks) to take a look at it. He said it looked ok nothing wrong and recommended stepping it up to a larger starter. So he sent my old starter back and I bought the larger starter from him to install. Once I put it in she has run like a dream! Thank you Curtis! Also thank you Utopipga (Craig) for the space in your garage for 3 weeks lol! I want everyone to know Curtis is a very honest person. He could have rebuilt my starter but he was honest and said it all looked good and that was not the issue. This is why I decided to buy the larger starter from him. After being honest he deserved the business. I will defiantly do more business with him and recommend him to friends. Thanks Curtis! I am not sure the difference as far as the watts on the old and new starter but I am sure Curtis can chime in and provide that info if someone wants it. This has been an ongoing issue since I got the bike but we just could not figure it out. I fried 3 battery's due to the starter getting weak and trying to hard overheating the battery. I hope this helps someone out down the road save some money. Ride safe everyone!
 
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