Please Help!!

[owens.jeremyh]

Good morning,

New to the forum and new to me bike. I got a sweet deal on a 98 Yamaha Royal Star. Put a new battery in as the previous owner said the current had a bad cell. Bike started and ran great for 2 days. Bike was dusty from sitting in a garage a couple months so after 2 days I washed it and waxed etc. Bike started and ran fine half the day. I leave to go to work and the bike won't start. Some of the guys here ride so I rolled it off but they didn't know the fix either. When I press the start button you can hear the engine turn once but not enough to start then will do nothing or just click. I tried using 2 different jump boxes with same results...headlights come all, speedometer lights, tail lights etc...it just won't turn over enough to start. It did this once earlier in the day but then started fine after I tried again. Now not so much. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

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[CaseyJ955]

Welcome! Sorry your having troubles. Ill throw this out until some 2nd gen guys chime in. Generally speaking I would check terminals and grounds around starter and batt, and anywhere you can see. Remove or disconnect the battery and get a trickle charger going on it, once fully charged it should again start the bike (hopefully). After battery is charged the key off voltage across the battery should be around 12.5, and with engine running it should not be much more or less than 14v. Just because a battery is new does not mean its good, but what you describe sounds like the bike is not correctly recharging the battery as you ride, so when battery wears down the fun stops. Depending on your voltage readings I might speculate a stator or regulator bit I digress, the 2nd gen savvy might have model specific things to check. One other thing I have noticed in my 35 years of riding, I have often had trouble jumping a bike with a flat battery but slap a known good one in and it fires right up. I hope this gives you a place to start. Good luck on the fix.

[cowpuc]

Hi Ow,, good morning back to you and ,,, glad you found us..

First thing I would do on the bike is put your battery on a battery charger (actual charger, not a tender). You dont have to remove it from the bike to do so. Thinking the previous owner may possibly have misdiagnosed the situation and you simply ran the bikes electrical system off the freshly charged new battery until it went dead ], you are gonna want to see if you might be dealing with a stator or a regulator issue..

After letting the battery charge for a couple hours or so so you know it has a good charge, double check the tightness on your battery leads. Try to start the bike.. If it starts, while its idling, take a volt/ohm meter and check the voltage across the battery posts and note voltage. Now rev the bike up a little while checking across battery with meter and see what reading you get.. Idle should see 12vdc, 2 grand or so above idle should read 14.5 vdc .

No change means something is up with the charging system..

Lots of old gearheads still use the headlight method for checking the system too, simply shine headlight on garage wall and watch for beam change slightly as you bump the R's. Works great but meter is more accurate..

Hope you can follow my thoughts and it helps..

Puc

[cowpuc]

Morning Case,,, see your fingers is working faster than mine this morning!!!

 

Pouring rain here and about 40 degrees (HEAT WAVE!!).. Hows weather in the Hills?

Sorry for the hijack Ow..

[owens.jeremyh]

Morning Case,,, see your fingers is working faster than mine this morning!!!

 

Pouring rain here and about 40 degrees (HEAT WAVE!!).. Hows weather in the Hills?

Sorry for the hijack Ow..

Thanks to you both for the quick replies, I will try this as soon as home from work and at the charger today. Here in NC it's high 40's and clear 3:05 am.

 

 

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[cowpuc]

You betcha, anytime!! and all the best with the fix!!!

[CaseyJ955]

Morning Case,,, see your fingers is working faster than mine this morning!!! Pouring rain here and about 40 degrees (HEAT WAVE!!).. Hows weather in the Hills? Sorry for the hijack Ow..

G'mornin sir Puc! I see you and I are on the same page, or we are both nuttier than Chinese chicken salad, possibly both. In the amazing Black Hills we have enjoyed a couple very balmy, sunny, dry days. Now we are gonna get (maybe) 8-15" snow and a blizzard warning a county over. Its not going to be terribly cold which means heavy wet snow pulling trees and power lines down. Welcome to South Dakota! Still no place I would rather live with the possible exception of Wyoming. One day you will find yourself here outside rally week and you and I will ride the hills good and proper, and smoke some ribs! Now, so I dont get kicked in the cubes for hijacking I would like to add for the OP that if the battery is going on a conventional automotive charger, use the 2amp setting, 10amp can cook a small battery pretty quickly in my e perience. 2amp seems to be about the max safe for a bike battery. A couple hours should do her unless totally flat. I have cheated and used my battery tender to charge a battery bacause my other one has no 2amp setting, if its not completely flat it may work, but agreeing with you that it is not ideal. Sorry I still cant format posts into separate paragraphs.

[owens.jeremyh]

G'mornin sir Puc! I see you and I are on the same page, or we are both nuttier than Chinese chicken salad, possibly both. In the amazing Black Hills we have enjoyed a couple very balmy, sunny, dry days. Now we are gonna get (maybe) 8-15" snow and a blizzard warning a county over. Its not going to be terribly cold which means heavy wet snow pulling trees and power lines down. Welcome to South Dakota! Still no place I would rather live with the possible exception of Wyoming. One day you will find yourself here outside rally week and you and I will ride the hills good and proper, and smoke some ribs! Now, so I dont get kicked in the cubes for hijacking I would like to add for the OP that if the battery is going on a conventional automotive charger, use the 2amp setting, 10amp can cook a small battery pretty quickly in my e perience. 2amp seems to be about the max safe for a bike battery. A couple hours should do her unless totally flat. I have cheated and used my battery tender to charge a battery bacause my other one has no 2amp setting, if its not completely flat it may work, but agreeing with you that it is not ideal. Sorry I still cant format posts into separate paragraphs.

Ok so good news and bad news...good news is I got her working again!! I charged the battery overnight on 2amp came right back up like it should...put battery in nothing...so we used meter to start checking, switches good, solenoid good...harnesses and fuses...good...so gotta be the starter...like I said I'm a noob, so I followed my Clyde book on locating the starter and jumping just the starter...removed the gas tank and other mess to find out it was never in the way to start with...jumped the starter and it turned bike over fine...frustration...as a last resort "will be first resort from now on" I checked my ground cable...it appeared to be in great condition, I took it off anyway...hit it with some steel wool and a wire brush replaced it and boom, engine turns over..I then removed and cleaned every connector I could find...put all the covers, gas tank, harness back together and on, crossed my fingers pulled the choke and hit the start button and wam she fired like new!! Shut it off several times it now starts with no issue...bottom line, I did a whole lot of unnecessary work had I just went to the ground first...but I learned alot today and got to spend some wrench time with my pops!! I call it a win!! Thanks for all your help. BTW today is sunny is 78...lol NC has weird weather....winter Wednesday summer Thursday!! Yal have a good one!!

 

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[CaseyJ955]

Ok so good news and bad news...good news is I got her working again!! I charged the battery overnight on 2amp came right back up like it should...put battery in nothing...so we used meter to start checking, switches good, solenoid good...harnesses and fuses...good...so gotta be the starter...like I said I'm a noob, so I followed my Clyde book on locating the starter and jumping just the starter...removed the gas tank and other mess to find out it was never in the way to start with...jumped the starter and it turned bike over fine...frustration...as a last resort "will be first resort from now on" I checked my ground cable...it appeared to be in great condition, I took it off anyway...hit it with some steel wool and a wire brush replaced it and boom, engine turns over..I then removed and cleaned every connector I could find...put all the covers, gas tank, harness back together and on, crossed my fingers pulled the choke and hit the start button and wam she fired like new!! Shut it off several times it now starts with no issue...bottom line, I did a whole lot of unnecessary work had I just went to the ground first...but I learned alot today and got to spend some wrench time with my pops!! I call it a win!! Thanks for all your help. BTW today is sunny is 78...lol NC has weird weather....winter Wednesday summer Thursday!! Yal have a good one!! Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

Fantastic! So glad its working. Its never a waste of time to dig in a bit and get more familiar with how she is put together. Better to learn now than along side the road somewhere. I hope it was just the ground preventing the battery from charging but were you able to get some voltage readings just to make sure she is working 100%? Even the other trick mentioned above would be prudent to make sure the battery wont die again. Let us know and enjoy the sun!

[owens.jeremyh]

Ok guys looking to pick your experienced brains again if you have a moment. My bike like posted is 98 Yamaha Royal star. I got her running great again thanks to alot of help from you. I recently had a buddy gave me a set of megaphones slip ons because I told him my bike was quiet. These go out to 4" from my factory pipes so they are quite a bit wider and he said they made his Harley louder but he went with a full Reinhart exhaust recently and isn't using these anymore. He removed the baffles when he had them and I don't have them either. A local bike shop told me there shouldn't be any damage by running no baffles but the bike may run more lean causing it to run warmer but shouldn't mess anything up. They advised I may lose some power due to less back pressure and may want to have the carb rejetted. I would like the opinion of you all who are experienced riders/mechanics etc especially if you have ever ran or know anyone who has something similar. Main thing I don't want to do is have any engine failure, but I really want the bike to sound like it has a little more testosterone than how it does factory without spending an arm and a leg. Thanks in advance for your input!!

 

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[Yammer Dan]

Put them on and ENJOY!! Shouldn't be any problems.

[cowpuc]

Yep,, I am with DanL' on that... Now if you start foolin with the OEM airbox/air filter arrangement along with those open pipes then yea,,, your gonna wanna take a close look at the jetting too but,,, only uncorkin the pipes - should be good to go.. Small word of advice,,, ya might wanna hang on to your OEM pipes too cause listening to the mighty V-4 sing thru open pipes can get a little tiring if touring... I made a set of drag pipes one time for one of my 1st Gens out of thin wall chain link fence posts, welded on a set of make shift shark fins on em - WOW DID THEY SOUND GREAT and no problem with jetting (bike ran out past 250k) but, a cross country tour with those pups on there taught me how tiring the drone tone of running open pipes could be.. Hang em on the man cave wall just in case......

[venturerider09]

Ok guys looking to pick your experienced brains again if you have a moment. My bike like posted is 98 Yamaha Royal star. I got her running great again thanks to alot of help from you. I recently had a buddy gave me a set of megaphones slip ons because I told him my bike was quiet. These go out to 4" from my factory pipes so they are quite a bit wider and he said they made his Harley louder but he went with a full Reinhart exhaust recently and isn't using these anymore. He removed the baffles when he had them and I don't have them either. A local bike shop told me there shouldn't be any damage by running no baffles but the bike may run more lean causing it to run warmer but shouldn't mess anything up. They advised I may lose some power due to less back pressure and may want to have the carb rejetted. I would like the opinion of you all who are experienced riders/mechanics etc especially if you have ever ran or know anyone who has something similar. Main thing I don't want to do is have any engine failure, but I really want the bike to sound like it has a little more testosterone than how it does factory without spending an arm and a leg. Thanks in advance for your input!!

 

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I agree with everyone else, bolt 'em on and let 'er rip. I put 4" Freedom Performance slip on's on my '09 RSV and never had a problem in over 70K miles, though I did leave the baffles in because with them out it attracted too much attention for the local Constabulary, if ya' know what I mean.....

[owens.jeremyh]

Another question guys, on the left side of my bike is circular plate on the engine, factory it says Yamaha, mine some oxidation on it and I would like to order a custom one, so my noob question is what exactly is this piece called?

 

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[M61A1MECH]

Another question guys, on the left side of my bike is circular plate on the engine, factory it says Yamaha, mine some oxidation on it and I would like to order a custom one, so my noob question is what exactly is this piece called?

 

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In the parts list it is simply called cover cap 2, see item 10 on this breakdown https://www.partsfish.com/oemparts/a/yam/50043eccf8700209bc78df32/crankcase-cover-1

Normally it is called the timing hole cover.

[djh3]

Try some chrome polish, or never dull if it just looks bad. Most of them covers were polished alum and then some kind of clear coat that eventualy peeled.