Hey everyone, I just picked up a 1997 vulcan classic 1500 with 34,xxx miles. Its extremely clean and well taken care of. The bike turns over perfectly fine with no struggle but won't fire. I was told by the PO that he parked the bike 6 months ago and when he went to start it the other day it wouldn't start. It was left on a battery tender over those 6 months
I dropped it off at a local shop today who told me it was the pulser coil. They gave me an estimate of 1200 dollars.
I have no problem doing the work myself and would like to go through the troubleshooting on my own so I can really make sure the problem is what they said. I wouldn't want to throw 1200 dollars at it and not have it be the right fix.
Anyways where would be a good place to start?
Thanks
Well, right off the bat, the pulser coil problem is suspect because there are two of them and both are unlikely to fail together.
You bought it not running?
Yes I did. I have a versys that I daily right now so I'm not without a bike and the guy seemed genuine enough. He said that it was running but when he tried to start it up the other day after he posted the ad,it wouldn't start. He dropped the price quite a bit and the appearance of the bike looked like it was extremely well cared for. I'm hoping my trust in the guy doesn't bite me in the butt
The first thing to do is test the battery. You have two choices:
1. Take it to a battery shop and have it load tested, or
2. If you have a meter (or would like to buy one and learn) we can give you a quick and dirty test.
OK so. The voltage on the battery was about 12.5. Then with the ignition on it was 12.2v. With the engine turning over a few times it was down to 8.3v.
I tried it a second time and it didn't have enough juice to turn over. I'm thinking that the battery have been used too much in the past couple of days without being able to charge. I must've tried about 5 times the last two days and I'm not sure how much, if at all, the shop tried
12.5v on battery is normal, your 12.2v with ignition is normal, and when turning over your 8.3v is normal, but my gut tells me that you're right about the battery not having enough juice due to being used too much and not being charged up. try to charge up the batter over a full days charge with a 1.25amp battery tender
1. 8.3v is NOT normal.
2. Charge your battery.
3. Post back with make and model # of your meter for my reference.
4. Post back when your battery is charged and we can do a quick test.
OK so I picked up a battery tender today and hooked up the battery.
The multimeter is an Etek # 10730w
I'll post back again once the battery is charged
1. Take voltage reading across battery.
2. Turn on key and take another reading.
3. Leave key on for 5 minutes and then take another reading.
4. Turn off key, after 5 minutes, take another reading.
Battery Tender to be removed for above.
Post back with 4 readings.
1. Pull a spark plug and with HT lead still attached, ground body against bare metal engine part. Key on, crank engine over and see if you have spark.
2. Post a picture of the end of the plug when you are done.
I had to pick up a socket real quick. I tried a plug from the front and rear cylinder. Neither had a spark. The plugs were a little wet and smelled like gas
1. Locate ignitor.
2. Locate grey wire that plugs into ignitor.
3. Push red lead down beside grey wire to contact pin.
4. Key on, take voltage reading.
Post back with reading.
To remove spark plugs, use tool from tool kit or get an 18mm thin wall socket. Sears has them.
my voltage at the grey wire is 10.96v.
Thanks. That's where I went to get one. It wasn't until I was looking through the bike that I found the tool kit. After I bought the socket of course haha
1. Locate where key switch pigtail plugs into main harness. You will have to follow it back from switch.
2. Ignitor still unplugged.
3. Key on, probe both sides of harness plug on grey wire.
It was a pain trying to get the connector with my big hands but I got it and the voltage was around a 96 mV on the ignition side and 110 mV on the harness side.
I apologize if I'm doing this wrong and thanks for hanging in there with me.
What is the voltage supposed to be at this point?
OK, there is a 100 ohm resistor inside the key switch. It appears that it is either open or bad connection.
Switch can be taken apart to check. Be very careful of stuff flying all over the place when you do this.
I rarely give voltage expectations because sometimes they become a self fulfilling prophesy, or other errors, and then that can lead to some real tail chasing. I like to get a reading from the poster with no expectations and that works better. if the reading is correct, I will say so.
From 3000 miles away over the internet, it works better that way for all involved.
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