Rapidly Drains Battery, Backfires when starting

  • Thread starter Thread starter laverlesmains
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laverlesmains

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Hi All

Not sure that it's related - but it could have started with me giving the old girl a washing yesterday.

In general she seems like a hard starter, so I took out the old battery and stuffed in a newish one from my Suzuki.    It cranked over rapidly at first, but within about a dozen or so revolutions it backfired.  Then the battery would hardly turn it over at all.

Any thoughts on what would drain a battery so rapidly?  (this behavior happened with the original battery too)    Water shorting something?

Thanks
 
Ignition on - Battery reads 12.2 volts.   

Hit the starter switch - Battery reads 5.7 - 7.8 volts, and starter motor reads about the same..
 
Knackered battery....or starter. How are the brushes?
Also - carefully check & clean all connections from battery + to solenoid to starter.  Also battery - to earth.  You should be able to measure at least 10.5v when cranking.

Water does not conduct electricity...but filling the starter or other components with water won't help their operation.
 
Starter motor needs a proper clean-out.  Perhaps a new set of brushes as well.

Took me several years to find that, kept replacing the battery every riding season till I sussed it out...

piet
 
thanks for the suggestions.  I'll take it apart tomorrow evening and report on progress.

Cheers
 
Had the battery on the charger for a bit, and after dinner went out and hit the starter button. She fired right u into a smooth idle.  Shut it off, tried again and it struggled to turn over.

Came in the house and the wife said "it started didn't it?". 

"ya", I said "beats me why"

True story, she said "after 25 years of marriage it's the same thing - you can hit that button for days and nothing happens, then one day it starts and you have no idea why!"

I love my life
 
I put my money on the bushes of the starter or the cables inside. When I did the major rebuild and upgrade of my Jota during 1998 - 2001, I had the starter-motor completely reworked by a friend who runs a company for electric engines/turbines, pumps etc.. He completely re-wired the thing, insulated it properly, put in new brushes etc. etc.. Ever since, the bike starts on the first hit of the button.

Years later, the 1000 SFC struggled to start and even one day, I only had a clicking sound - nothing more. Called OCT and the first thing Volker (at that time at OCT) said was "Starter engine, I bet." I dismounted the starter, drove over to OCT, Roger looked at it and said: "I can fix it, but it takes time. Grap a new one of the shelf, I'll repair that one when I have time for it." They made me a good offer and off I went. Starter mounted, battery NOT charged, I pushed the button and the beast barked herself into live again.

Get the starter fixed, you will be surprised how good it cranks.  ;)
 
Same happened to me after someone gave the bike a quick steam clean 'to do me a favour'.  Problem it was very heavy duty agricultural cleaner that uses boiling water and pretty aggressive chemicals - 20 minutes later it wouldn't even turnover.  Took it to a local motor rewind company and they stripped, cleaned and rebuilt it in a day for ?20.  Even repainted it - cracking job
 
I'm with the others on the starter working inefficienly.

The backfire is probably due to the starter taking all the juice and leaving nothing for the ignition system. When a spark does eventually arrive, the fuel in the combustion champers and exhaust goes off in one go.

12.2V is low to start with though, is the battery borderline?

Paul.
 
The battery probably is borderline.    I'll check today again.

With regards to rebuilding the starter motor, apart from the winding, is this a DIY project or something best left to a shop?

 
As others I've had the same issues. If you want to do the job yourself it depends on how proficient you are at soldering the new brushes in (no offense meant here), because the they need to be soldered in with care.
While your at it I would also recommend to skim off a ever so light bit of the collector to make good contact.
I had mine done by a specialist some 12 years ago, set me back the equivilant of 25 Euros at the time.

HTH
Gerald
 
Having the same symptons with the 1200 charged overnight,started up no prob ,second time starting after running ,starter hardly cranks over,immediate drain,battery seems first port of call?

Shaun
 
If the electrical connections from the engine are under the airbox then water ingress is a possibility. This makes the bike backfire, run on two or even no cylinders. WD40 does the trick.
 
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