What the buzz

[gspaul]

Hi guy's ,
Went for a ride today, 35 degrees C ( just nice )
Stoped to get petrol, Went to start it ,and that fearfull moment arrives , NOTHING HAPPENS.
Push started It, not funny I have acute osteoarthritis.
Any who , got it home, tryed to start it ,no go.
I can hear the starter relay, and I can hear a buzzing from the starter motor.
Where should I look first.
Thank you.
Paul

[SqDancerLynn1]

Maybe a frozen battery Check the charge level & battery connections

[gspaul]

Conections are good, I'll check the voltage tonight.Thanks for the reply.
Any other ideas, anybody

[QuaiChangKane]

Maybe a frozen battery Check the charge level & battery connections

It's summer in Oz, Lynn!! 35C = 95F



Sounds like a bad battery. Charge it fully, and test the voltage with the bike running. Should be over 14.5 volts. If it's below, then the battery isn't charging. Take ithe battery to a bike shop and have them load test it - typically a free service, and takes about 30 seconds. If the battery's bad, replace and continue riding. If the battery's good, you'll need to reinstall the battery and disconnect the plug from the rectifier so you can start your bike and test your stator output to figure out if you have a bad rectifier or stator (there's no real way to test your rectifier by itself).

You'll need to test your stator to see if it's putting out the proper A/C current. If it is, then your rectifier is bad. If it isn't, then your stator is bad. I'm not going to guess at what your stator output should be - you should check your manual. Some bikes' peak stator output is as high as 120v A/C. As an example, I just replaced the rectifier in a friend's R-1, and factory output for the stator was ~90v A/C @ 5K RPM. Yours should be this high or close, I'd imagine.

Batteries fail pretty often if they're more than a couple of years old. These bikes are known for stator problems, too - but rectifiers tend to fail more often than stators. If you do have to replace either the rectifier or stator (or both - gawd forbid), then go with the good stuff - Electrex makes some great products.


Good luck - and send me some of those warm days.


-Q!

[gspaul]

Just checked my battery voltage ,not running, 13.2v after trying to turn over the motor a few times.
The buzzing of the starter concerns me a bit.
Sorry can't send you a warm day, you gave me no address.
Thank's for answering,I'll check out everything you thought in the morning.
I'm typing this in between making the kid's dinner!

[gspaul]

Fully charged the battery, 14.2v was the best I could get, still won't turn over,
still the starter motor makes a buzzing sound.
Am I going to be looking at the starter motor?
Many thank's for all help. Want to go on a 5 day ride soon, there are not that many hill's to park on in central Australia, and I don't think I could push start it again.
Have a good day.

[AOD]

try manually jumping the starter at the relay by using a screwdriver.

my guess is if it's buzzing, the relay is working okay, but the starter went south.

[Jackrp]

Re: What the buzz

Hi guy's ,
Went for a ride today, 35 degrees C ( just nice )
Stoped to get petrol, Went to start it ,and that fearfull moment arrives , NOTHING HAPPENS.
Push started It, not funny I have acute osteoarthritis.
Any who , got it home, tryed to start it ,no go.
I can hear the starter relay, and I can hear a buzzing from the starter motor.
Where should I look first.
Thank you.
Paul

Disconnect battery(safety first)Check and clean with a wire tooth brush or a scotch brite pad (no soap) all the connections from the battery to the starter solonoid, solonoid to the starter, especially check for cleanlyness of the battery terminals. There's a lot of current flow to start the bike and dirty connectors can have a great effect on start, so check these first before jumping to the starter motor,Cheap easy stuff first.

[gspaul]

Just my luck,starter relay works, and all current is as it should be.
Had a quik try with a car battery to see if the starter would turn, nothing.
Guess I'll have to pull it out, only put the carb's back on again 3 days ago,allway's the way eh!
Any tip's at rebuilding the starter?
Thank's for helping ,, but that's what we do here ,and that's great.
Cheers!

[Anonymous]

Some automobile starter/alternator rebuild shops will work on bike starters. Remember the good old days when we had a kick starter so if the electric starter failed we weren't pushing.

[gspaul]

I know,it would not have taken much to leave a kick start on these bikes.
You miss em when you need em.

[SqDancerLynn1]

My starter distroyed itself last year too, brushes,windings everything was torn to pieces. Never did find out why

[gspaul]

Well that would have really sucked,for me I'm hopeing it's just brushes and a good cleanout(I allways look on the bright side)
The other day I was sitting at the lights and this big capacity japanese cruiser pulled up, kept reving it, ok I did not bother droping the clutch, well this guy had me, untill I changed in to second.
Strange how some people give you THAT LOOK when your on an older bike,
but they dont know how quick a little 650 kat can be when it's correctly set up.
Well I smiled anyway.
Have a good day Lynn

[gspaul]

''
Thank you for everybodys help, turned out to be a combination of problems
( don't you love those)..
Borderline battery, border line starter brushes.
Changed both , now it spins like a champ.
Have a good day