Not starting

[Ventureless]

Ok I am having a problem and wonder what to check first. Saturday I changed oil and final drive fluid. Monday I rode to work no problem. When I got home, I must have left the power switch on (apparently the Ventures had a problem with the ignitions or something and previous owner installed a secondary switch for power - I believe that is correct). Needless to say, I go out at 3:30 Tuesday morning to leave for work and it was dead. I realized what I had done and just drove to work. Put it on the charger when I got home Tuesday and after about 4 hours it fired up. I went for a ride and let it run for about 20 minutes after to charge the battery some more. Cut it off and immediately tried starting again. No go. So I plugged it back in around 6PM last night and let it charge until 3:30 this morning. Green light on charger was on showing fully charged. Hop on and all lights, radio, etc come on as if fully charged. hit the starter button and nothing. When I hit the starter, the oil and temp lights both come on. Starter is not even clicking like it is a low battery.

 

So is it my starter, starter button, fuse? Could the battery have just crapped out? And why do both the oil light and temp light come on when I hit the button? Because those lights are coming on, it leads me to believe that the starter button is working.

 

Thanks

[mountainhorsega]

Check the kill switch

[Ventureless]

Check the kill switch

 

I haven't checked anything yet. I didn't realize anything was wrong other than a dead battery until 3:30 this morning. And I was pretty p^issed off because I ride all winter freezing my butt off and never have a problem and then we start having 50 and 60+ degree mornings and the damn thing breaks. It was almost wheeled to my bonfire pit and lit up this morning.

 

I will be checking things when I get home today.

 

One of my biggest concerns is why the oil and temp light come on when I hit the starter button. That makes me think I have a bigger issue than just something electrical gone wrong. Not saying I do, but it makes me nervous. I just don't have teh time right now to be tearing anything major apart.

[relic]

Battery. Try boosting to prove this. Had same issue last year. Lights all good, not enough juice to even click starter. Boosted and started right up. New battery and all is good now.

[RedRider]

Don't worry about the dash lights. If they stay on after running for a bit, then you can worry.

 

Oil light comes on because it measures oil pressure and there isn't any until the bike starts. Not sure why the Temp light would come on, but I wouldn't worry about it.

 

However, it does sound like a dead battery. Take it to the local auto parts store and get it load tested.

 

Good luck.

 

RR

[rowdy7]

If your battery cables are making good connections my money is on the battery. That is the first thing I would check. I had a 10 month old Everstart go kaput last year and couldn't believe it but it happens. I would jump start it just to confirm it is not your starter relay or switch.

Good Luck.

[MikeWa]

Check the kill switch

 

 

+1

 

It is pretty easy to bump the switch to the off position.

 

Mike

[Seaking]

Green light on charger was on showing fully charged. Hop on and all lights, radio, etc come on as if fully charged. hit the starter button and nothing. When I hit the starter, the oil and temp lights both come on. Starter is not even clicking like it is a low battery.

 

So is it my starter, starter button, fuse? Could the battery have just crapped out? And why do both the oil light and temp light come on when I hit the button? Because those lights are coming on, it leads me to believe that the starter button is working.

 

Thanks

 

I had a similar thing happen to mine last year.. I had recently replaced the battery on my 06 when the OEM wouldn't hold a charge, and everything was fine till late last fall.. full charge but the bike acted like it would not kick over, but it would eventually and run fine.. I did find that my radio controller would lose its settings and the trip ODO would reset when ever it had that 'kick over' situation..

 

Then this winter, nothing.. hit the starter switch and nothing would happen.. Hmmm Full charge on the battery, once I did get it running again, the charging system checked OK..

 

I took the starter switch apart and found it to be corroded.. not by much, mind you. A few passes of emery cloth across the contacts to shine it up and not a hint of problems after that. Surprising how little corrosion can cause it not to work properly. Its not hard to check, you never know.

[Ventureless]

Ok still nothing. Battery, fuses, kill switch, starter switch all good. No power to starter. All but 2 wires going in and out of ignition have power. The 2 that don't are 2 blue ones going to red plug in pic. Also how do I get the damn ignition out? DO I have to drill teh bolts out and replace with new ones? (pic of the ignition as well). I am getting pretty frustrated at this point. Almost posted it for sale as is earlier. As it is, I probably will not have a chance to mess with it again until next weekend. Or is there anybody near me (Warrenton, VA) that would mind helping me in trade for dinner and drinks (or one or the other).

 

Kevin: Got your calls. Sorry the weekdays are busy from 3AM until 8 or 9 at night with work and kids extra curriculars. I will give you a call tomorrow evening if you are available.

 

Well I thought I was uploading photos, but apparently I have no idea how. Upload keeps failing.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Ventureless

[bryan52577]

First off no offense, and I know it may sound like a stupid question? But I did it by accident before so I got to ask. Is it in neutral? Pull in the clutch and try the starter?

 

Bryan

[Guest]

Kevin, I had to cut slots in the screw heads with a dremel and used an impact driver to break it loose. There is thread lock on the threads as well. The allen head bolts that hold the handle bars in place are a perfect fit for the ignition bolt holes.

[Ventureless]

First off no offense, and I know it may sound like a stupid question? But I did it by accident before so I got to ask. :bang head:Is it in neutral? Pull in the clutch and try the starter?

 

Bryan

 

No offense taken. I went through several ways trying to start it.

 

That actually leads me to another question though. I know I can start it in nuetral with the stand down. So lets say I have the stand up, in nuetral, and clutch in, can teh safety switches still keep it from starting if any of them are bad? I would think with the combination of everything in the right position, it would start even if the switch went bad. I guess I should test the switches just in case huh?

[Ventureless]

Kevin, I had to cut slots in the screw heads with a dremel and used an impact driver to break it loose. There is thread lock on the threads as well. The allen head bolts that hold the handle bars in place are a perfect fit for the ignition bolt holes.

 

Thanks. I guess since I have everything off, I am going to do that now whether I need to or not. It will make it quicker and easier later down the road if I do need to remove them.

[Ventureless]

OK looking at the 2 wires that are not getting power on teh wiring diagram here at work this morning. Looks liek teh 2 wires coming from the ignition are the L/Y and L/B. One goes to the stand and clutch switches. The other goes to the ignitor unit. Can it be the switches? Coming out of the ignition would there still be power to those wires even if the switches were bad? Just not sure which way the power runs through them. I am going to try and find teh time to test the switches today. But wouldn't it still fire up with the stand up, clutch pulled, and in nuetral even if one of the switches were bad?

[Ventureless]

OK I have one more thing to check and then I am out of ideas.

 

If my last idea doesn't work, could it possibly be the oil switch or the emergency (fall over) sensor. It doesn't look like they are in the diagnosing section for the starter not working so I assume they don't need to be working for it to start. But all this happened a couple days after changing the oil.

 

Also, can I just run a push button switch and some wire straight form the battery to the starter for teh time being? I realize that it would be easy to steal, but I am running very low on patience right now.

[wideopenrod]

I believe Deepforkriver had this same type issue, and ended up being stator unit...

 

James, sound like what you went through?

[deepforkriver]

Yes, sounds familiar.

I had two things happen.

 

First: No start. Kickstand up, down, clutch in, out, didnt matter.

I bypassed the kickstand switch under the left (sittin on bike) foot fairing and presto. fired right up. There are threads here somewhere....

Read thru this thread on ignition and pickup coil. V7Goose was most patient with me. It is a good read and everyone will learn more about this bike from his comments.

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65888&highlight=kickstand+bypass+switch

 

Second:

Bike got really hard to start, progressively harder and harder until it would not start. Would crank, but would not start. Bought a pick up coil from pinwall on fleabay and has worked ever since. Not easy to get to, left side crank cover, but there is a thread on that here also, somewhere.

If I can find the threads, I will post..

Hope this helps,

James

Edited April 17, 2013 by deepforkriver
added links