Bike is f'd up again!

[tdecotis]

I have had a lot of problems with this bike I bought from my friend. He bought it new in 05, rode it for a year crashed and basically didn't ride it since. The bike only has 6k miles on it.

The last thing I was fixing was a very small leak on one of the radiator pipes that I was able to weld. I had all the pipes off and decided to take the stator cover off as well just to see what it look like since it was easy to get too but didn't remove any wires.

When I replaced all the pieces I went to start the bike and it turned very slowly and after a few attempts the battery died and both positive and negative terminals were very hot. The battery is only a month old yuasa battery so I don't think that is the problem and it was connected correctly.

All I know was bike was running fine a few days ago and now nothing. Do I have a bad wire somewhere possibly? Or is the issue something else?

[jkv45]

Disconnect the battery and check the voltage - chances are it will need to be charged. Trickle charge it overnight, let it sit for a couple of hours, and check the voltage.

A fully charged 12V battery should read 12.7- 12.8V depending on temp.

A reading of 12.4V is 75% charged.

A reading of 12.0V is 25% charged.

If it reads 12.7 or so, hook it up (double check everything is correct) and check the voltage while cranking. It should be over 12.0V while cranking.

Just because the battery is new doesn't mean it couldn't be the problem. Checking under load (cranking) after being fully charged will tell you.

[tdecotis]

I took the battery to get tested and it is good. I charged it last night and tried this morning with the same result with it turning very slowly and the terminals getting hot and then click click click....

[jkv45]

Originally Posted by tdecotis

I took the battery to get tested and it is good. I charged it last night and tried this morning with the same result with it turning very slowly and the terminals getting hot and then click click click....

If not a bad battery then an issue with the starter most likely.

There's too much resistance (electrical or mechanical) causing the heavy load.

I'd check to see that you can turn the engine over easily by hand. Once you confirm there's no issue there, I'd pull the starter and put power to it. If it turned slowly it would confirm a problem.

I was betting it was the battery....

[alex.s]

perhaps you assembled the stator cover wrong. forget a gasket maybe? try cranking it by hand and see if its hard to turn

[alex.s]

another possibility is a bad starter motor or bad wiring

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by tdecotis

..........All I know was bike was running fine a few days ago and now nothing..............

99/100 times the problem hides in the last thing we did to our bikes.

Yours may be a 6 Ah battery (6 Amps delivered during one hour, 12 during half hour, etc.).

If you are killing it in a few minutes, whatever is wrong is using close to 30 Amps, since the main fuse is not melting.

That is no good at all for your new battery (internals get all deformed = permanent damage).

[alex.s]

if the starter motor had a short in the windings it would be weaker and draw more power

[tdecotis]

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I just had a loose wire near the terminals and was able to get the bike started....Unfortunately I am not done with my problems.

Now I have a major coolant leak but I don't see it leaking anywhere on the ground. I put the new coolant back in and the levels were fine with nothing leaking until I started the bike than the reservoir and main coolant just emptied with no sign of leaks on the ground.

I started the bike last night rode for a few minutes but it still had coolant in the reservoir and then this morning one more quick ride and I noticed the reservoir was on the low side so I ran it on the center stand to look for a leak for about 5 minutes and all the coolant was gone but I don't see a leak.

This has never been an issue and the last things I worked on was welding the coolant pipe which shows no sign of leak anymore, took off exhaust because it was so rusty from the previous leak so I removed rust and put back on the bike, and took stator cover off because of curiosity.

I don't know if messing with any of those things would cause this leak but I am at a loss.

I do not have a leak down tester and was discouraged when I saw the coolant leak so I have not even drained my oil to see if the coolant has leaked in there which I am assuming it has since I see no sign of a leak on the ground.

[agentbad]

Did you get all the air out of the coolant system?

[jkv45]

Originally Posted by agentbad

Did you get all the air out of the coolant system?

^ This

Make sure it's cooled-down, then remove the cap. Fill the radiator from the opening, then start it and run it for a minute with the cap off. Chances are the level will drop significantly and you'll need to fill it again. Eventually it will stay full, and start to overflow as it warms up. Put the cap on and fill the overflow tank to the "full cold" mark.

It may burp more when you do a full ride up to operating temp, so keep an eye on the level for a while.

I think that's what happened.

So what with the starter?

[JohnnyBravo]

Originally Posted by jkv45

^ This

Make sure it's cooled-down, then remove the cap. Fill the radiator from the opening, then start it and run it for a minute with the cap off. Chances are the level will drop significantly and you'll need to fill it again. Eventually it will stay full, and start to overflow as it warms up. Put the cap on and fill the overflow tank to the "full cold" mark.

It may burp more when you do a full ride up to operating temp, so keep an eye on the level for a while.

I think that's what happened.

So ?

[7oxSin]