A few weeks ago, my starter seemed to be slowing down. This didn't really surprise me, as my motor has had compression of at least 10.5:1 for about 17 years now, and is slightly higher than that now. I always hit my compression releases, but who knows whether the first owner was that careful about it (not to mention when it's in for inspection, dyno, etc). It started with the starter beginning to turn, momentarily dying, then coming back to life and starting. Then one day it briefly turned, then clicked. Despite the starter's difficult life, my first assumption was battery. I think I've had this bike about four years, and I've never changed it. Who knows how old it is. I've wanted to move to an Antigravity battery, but since I want a small one, it will take some battery box fabrication. I was about to launch into that, but thought to test my battery first. Over 13 volts, and it wasn't just on a tender. Maybe not the battery. But all it would do was click. Jump box, charger, no difference. I followed the voltage drop diagnostics in the service manual, and everything pointed to the solenoid. A very kind soul sent me a rebuild kit (I now owe him a favor!), so I opened up the solenoid, which is easily accessed (this is after cleaning up the contacts with fine sandpaper):



The battery side contact looked beat, here it is compared with the new one:



Unfortunately, the field contact can't be removed without pulling the starter. Since I would be inclined to reinstall an AllBalls 1.4 starter if this one comes out, I decided not to pull it. The field contact looked absolutely fine, so I replaced the battery side and the plunger, and put it all back together. It started to turn, and the battery died. But no solenoid clicking. Attached my jump box, same thing... The motor turned a few times, and the battery died. Left it on the tender overnight. Just under 12 volts in the morning. Not wanting to wait to order and build stuff, I ran to the dealer and got an OEM battery. The starter turner better than it has in a long time, but no starting...

It seemed like there was no spark, which I confirmed with an inline plug tester. Again, I did all the diagnostics from the service manual that could be performed without a breakout box and/or scanalyzer. No stored codes, batter voltage at the coil, but no test light at terminal "A" or "C." Further testing called for a breakout box, but reading ahead, the next part that would be changed would be the crank position sensor. I picked one up. Changing this sensor is a HUGE pain in the *** on '00-'03 bikes (I think). The only connector is under the seat, and the wires run the whole length in the same sheath as the oil pressure sender and the cam position sensor. You're supposed to de-pin the connector, and somehow feed the wires all the way through the harness. Fortunately I didn't get this far. I installed the new sensor, and just stuck the pins into the female side of the connector to test it. Nothing.

I was positive that I reconnected everything properly, but yesterday decided to retrace all my steps, starting with removing the new battery. I remembered before taking out the old battery, there were two leads attached to the positive post, and three leads on the ground stud in the frame backbone. This was still true now. I took it all apart, leaving this view:



But as I unplugged and checked every connector in there, something suddenly came into view...



Another ground wire! It was completely hidden under other stuff until I started moving everything around (I looked several times to make sure nothing was undone)...



I had counted three wires on this post, and thought that meant the one on the post in the picture, the one from the battery, and the one from my tender lead. In hindsight, I think I had pulled the tender lead out before I looked at it... Heh heh... I tend to make one bone-headed move per project. I am sure that the solenoid did need to be rebuilt, and that the battery needed to be changed. So all I lost was one nice day when I could've ridden, and I have a spare crank sensor on my shelf.

I do EXCELLENT work the second time I do things! Haha!

 

My rule for estimating jobs: Figure out how long you think it will take then multiply by 4. It will always take twice as long as you expect, and then you will either want to do it over based on what you learned, or you will have to do it over because you forgot something.

I never start anything that I think will take more than half an hour. That way, I can be reasonably sure I'll finish the same day.

 

Smart thinking with the crank sensor test!

That contact was pretty far gone. Out of curiosity, how did the plunger contact ring look? Mine looked pretty good despite the motor contacts looking similar to yours.

Glad you got it sorted without losing much of the little remaining time we have left.

 

This is the old plunger, but after an effort to clean it up a little... Before receiving new parts from "somebody," I tried cleaning and sanding everything.



Do you mean time left in the season, or were you referring to time left in the grand scheme of things?

 

LOL, time in the season! We don't want any more broken wings up in this bitch!