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Bike doesn't seem to want to start...

4K views 19 replies 8 participants last post by  Hot Cruiser 
#1 ·
2014 Vulcan 900 custom, battery is charged up, won't start. Doesn't seem to even want to turn the engine over. Display just resets repeatedly. I am thinking possibly a fuse or my sweet wiring job on the alarm, but the alarm has been on the bike for almost a year. First time this has happened, just wondering if anyone had ever experienced anything similar. Video posted below:

https://youtu.be/hAZbEwPV0Kk

Thanks for any input.
 
#3 ·
Agree with rwerner75. Display resetting when starter is engaging is a sign of low battery output, despite the battery initially being "charged up." A less likely alternative could be corroded or bad connections at the battery, starter relay, or starter motor terminals. My test (not approved by some) is to try to jump start the motorcycle, being careful to connect positive to positive, etc. If the bike jump starts that almost automatically points to the bike's battery as the problem and eliminates the starter switch, relay, starter motor, and connections as problems.
 
#6 ·
I would put my money on the dead battery...
I had the same problem... changed the battery and everything was fine ....
(and my dead battery also showed it was full (12v) but it wasn't)
 
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#7 ·
I have the same issue right now. Checked the starter relay / 30A fuse and all was good. I jumped started the bike, it started right up. Then pulled the jumper cables and metered the battery looking for charging voltage from the regulator. Wow: 6 or 7 volts and heading down, got to 5V and the engine slowed and quit.

This on a battery that maintained full charge and started the bike immediately until the s**t hit the fan. I suspect a serious internal short in the batt, and will replace it before suspecting the stator, alt, regulator etc.

2009 V900 Classic, 4900mi.
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Sonny, I'm no expert on this but if your running bike is only getting 6-7 volts at the battery something is wrong. Could be a bad ground or it could be the stator/rectifier issue. That battery may also be bad but the charging system on the bike should have kept it running. @sfair is the electrics expert around here, if you search on here you can find the procedures for testing for the stator and regulator/rectifier issues. Hope you can figure this out
 
#11 ·
That was my thought, with metering after jump starting. I was looking for the 14V + or - charging voltage from the regulator, but I'm not sure that appears with an internal battery short.

The battery flunks a load test, immediately and completely, after showing a full charge on my trusty Noco .75A smart charger. After failing the load test, the Noco brings it right back up to showing a full charge.

I'm head scratching. Maybe Sfair has some wisdom on this.

Meanwhile, I will do the continuity checks on the 3 stator wires... can't test regulator output until the bike is running.

But the original poster and I seem to have the same issue going on.
 
#12 ·
Battery Fails the load test and you have not yet installed a new battery? Why?

I suggest you also start another thread on your topic here so others can help you directly, while you monitor this thread. Waters get a little muddy when people are trying to help 2 different people with issues in the same thread. Even tho they seem the same, trouble shooting may take different paths due to what has or hasn't been done already. Make sense?
 
#15 ·
Checking back in to report my issue was a shorted battery only. Perhaps this will help the original poster.

Afraid of damaging a new batt, first I did continuity checks to detect a stator coil shorted to ground (had good opens on all 3 white wires), and did the resistance checks on the regulator/rectifier, all was according to spec.

Replaced the battery, cranked her up, 14.0V charging current across the batt terminals, everything perfect. There musta been some wild arcing and melting down goin' on in the old battery. It worked perfectly and held a charge until it went south all of a sudden. It was a BikeBandit AGM that came when I bought the bike last year.

I'm used to batteries slowly getting weak and then failing. The V900 symptoms on this failure were sudden and alarming, like the whole electrical system was blowing up and taking the fuel pump with it. Sheesh!

Anyway, Sonny's back in the wind and farting thru silk, hopefully NRWhit will get off as easily. Thanks for the forum help.
 
#16 ·
Good to hear that you got the problem identified and are back on the road. You did lots of detective work! My experience with AGM batteries is that they can appear to work fine on one day, then on the next can fail. My last AGM battery failure (a few weeks ago) was due to an apparent sudden short in one cell, after I did some diagnostic work on the battery.
 
#17 ·
I ran the checks in Romans/Sfair's sticky stator thread, a useful resource indeed. The tests are quick and easy to do and orient you well for confronting the stator issue.

I have the Clymer manual but the thing is poorly indexed and you need to bookmark a bunch of locations and jump back and forth to work with it.
 
#18 ·
The stator on my 900 warned about its coming failure with the classic whine symptom as a clue and my on-bike voltmeter confirming the pending failure, and that Romans 5:8/sfair sticky was quite valuable in helping to replace the stator and do the appropriate tests. I have the Kawasaki VN900 shop manual which also is very good but does lack a couple of details.
 
#19 ·
Yeah, I was talking to a local Kawasaki factory trained mechanic yesterday and he was saying how the Vulcan 900 stator R&R is a very expensive job requiring removal of the drive pulley and back wheel to route the harness. I said yes, well, you don't have to do all that... you can just cut off the old plug and solder and shrink wrap the new stator harness onto it. He says, I know but I can't do that, I have to follow the factory procedure and use an OEM stator and plug. I says yeah, but... So, I guess you pay the high price taking it to a dealer for repair. The factory part itself costs a couple hundred more than an aftermarket one, and by reports on this forum it isn't as good.

You seem to run into this any time you take a vehicle to the dealership for maintenance. They're trained, they'll probably do the job right, but they'll do it the hard way and you will pay a bundle for the work.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Wow! That "Kawasaki factory trained mechanic" apparently was trained to extort the most amount of money possible for replacing the stator. Even the Kawi shop manual's procedure is much more straightforward. Remove the drive pulley and rear wheel? The wiring harness routes to the rectifier/regulator in front! I used the original harness and made the solder splices inside the stator cover. Stator replacement cost me about $150, including my mistakes.
 
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