I've been wrenching on cars for over 40 years, including campaigning a winning drag race car. But, electronics really ain't my thing. So, I'm a bit stumped by this problem that recently cropped up.

The bike is a '06 Deluxe with 50K miles, bone stock 88 with a 2-1 header and a K&N air filter. It has a PC III "tuner" installed, but not by me. It was on the bike when I bought it. The bike runs good, so I've never messed with it.

The temps have been cooling down here in Central California with lows in the high 40 or low 50s. Not "Cold" by anyone's measure. However, the last couple of weeks, I've been having a failure to start problem in the mornings. Battery is a year and a half old "Big Crank" from batterymart, 310CCa with 17amp/hr capacity. Static test on voltage is 12.7-9 after sitting for a bit, 13.1 right after taking it off the battery tender. Posts are clean and tight. Running voltage at idle is 14 plus volts, so I know the alternator is working.

When cranking for the first time, the starter drags a bit for the first turn, then spins normally. No fire to the plugs. Leave it on the tender all day, and in the afternoon, she starts right up.

I have not checked coil resistance, or battery voltage in morning on that first crank

Obviously the problem is temp related. So I'm looking for ideas from anyone who has had a similar problem.

 

Un plug the pcIII and see if the problem persists.

 

I'll give that go. Nothing to lose in trying.....but, but, won't my bike burst into flames without a tuner attached?

 

LOL! You'd surprised how many times I have heard about no start, slow to spin, hard to start issues being resolved by removing a power commander. Costs nothing to try.

 

First off, it appears that your battery is not good, regardless of the test readings. I installed a high performance starter and soon developed the "dragging" starter issue. I determined that the OEM cable wasn't of large enough gauge to deliver proper power to the starter. My start up sequence was identical to yours. Changing the battery and installing a larger gauge cable to the starter solved that problem. I recommend changing the cable but because your bike is stock I don't believe that is the root cause of your problem. I believe in spite of the testing, your battery is at least part of the issue. I say that because my hard starting was a result of four problems; a bad starter clutch, insufficient power to the starter, a missing fuel pump o-ring (low fuel pressure) and incorrect Cranking Fuel settings in my TTS tune. It took a while for me to unravel all of the issues. Keep an open mind and at least consider that there may be more than one issue that is contributing to your problem. I would definitely start with the battery since your bike seems to fire up after a day's worth of charging. After that, I would look hard at the PCIII settings because when your bike does fire up the only things that have changed are the battery charge and the ambient temperature. The ECM controls how much fuel is delivered during the cranking phase based on ambient temperature.

 

Also be sure NOT to wait till the engine light goes out before you try to start it.
The power commander needs to power up a second time when you wait, which guarantees several revs will be necessary to fire.
It will not harm in any way, to hit the starter as soon as you turn on the ignition...cops been doing that since the first speeder when by as he was sitting behind a sign. The bad guy would have gotten away for sure if the cop had to wait for that system check light to go out.
JME, Bob

 

It wouldn't hurt to load test the battery ... take the "guess" out of it.

 

Everything you guys are suggesting seems to point to the battery and cables. Ad it's common knowledge that resistance is higher at colder temps, at least with some types of circuits. It just seems odd to me that there is no spark, even though there's enough juice to turn the motor over when the temps are lower.

I'll give these suggestions a go and see what happens. Thanks guys

 

ALSO.....just had this prob on a 07 EGUC.......clean the IAC.......had probs starting warm.......ride a few miles....shut off, sit for 30 and it just cranks........cleaned IAC with Electronic spray cleaner.......it was FILTHY..........now..no probs..starts right up.......it was stuck

 

If you pulled the plugs, there won't be spark. The delphi system needs the plugs in to know when to throw spark.

Slow cranking sure sounds like battery and cables.