bike: 1999 fxdx

my starter was acting sluggish, and sometimes would just click so

i bought a new starter, and had my oem HD battery tested. it came back battery ok w/ still 70% life left, whatever that means. I fully charged it on the drip tender overnight and in the morning tender light was green and read 12.8 volts w/ the meter.

fast forward after getting it all buttoned up, i go to fire up the bike w/ new starter w/ the primary off, and the plunger jackshaft thing shot out, and caught the main clutch sproket, and started clicking rapidly, like a machine gun, it was very slowly turning the engine at like a snail crawl pace, and the whole time making that rapid clicking noise.

so i thought, "DAMN", low battery, so i swapped w/ a car battery to jump it and same thing, no go, just rapid clicking. Then i busted out my truck battery w/ 800 cold Cranking amps and thought piece of cake, but NOPE still same thing.

at this point i'm like "****" and i could feel the tears welling up in the back of my eyes, so i said **** it. and took off the new starter and put the old one back on.

When i got the old one in, the first try fire w/ my good car battery, I got it to engage and turn the engine, then immediately on the 2nd try, the same problem w/ the other starter(new) started happening, will click rapidly and barely inch up the big sprocket.

i cleaned all battery terminals and grounds w/ a wire brush and sand paper and still same thing.

is this the symptom of a bad starter relay? because that was my next option but i have to drive to dealer.

 

12.8V seems low for a fully charged battery, IMO. I think it wold be more like 13.2-13.5V. That makes me suspect the battery.

Based on your description of trying two other batteries I would also try new battery cables.

Doesn't sound like a relay problem, but they're only a few bucks so swap it and eliminate that as a problem.

 

thanks for the responce. my last choice was to buy a new battery because of the rape prices but I guess its the price you pay for Harley-Davidson. HD stands for hundreds of dollars.

here is a video of my problem in action. And this happened with BOTH starters, old and new, except the old actually used to run occassionally before i swapped them.

 

and also, my Brake light stopped working too...

i mean the brake light function where it gets brighter when you hit the brakes. the light is still on.

could this be related? because I noticed when searching the part number for the starter relay - it says BRAKE/Starter relay.

 

around 12.8 volts is good, about 14.5 volts with the motor going is around this figure,

 

Yep, 12.7 volts is 100% charge for a 12 volt battery in a non-running vehicle.

 

It wasn't the relay. i just wasted 8 bucks at the dealership and all the time and gas i thought it was a long shot but replacing the relay did nothing.

on a side note i tried hotwiring the starter direct to my truck battery and it still had the same problem, so im thinking maybe i have 2 broken starters. even my new one is broke. bewshett

 

You need to take a deep breath...

Don`t troubleshoot a system by replacing the most expensive part first....

The chances of the first starter being bad were pretty remote, these things last pretty much forever.

The chance that you now have two starters with the same defect...damn near zero.

You can see in the video that the pinion gear engages into the ring gear, which means that the coil in the starter solenoid is being energized. That means the starter relay is doing its job.

It appears that there is not enough current going through the starter motor.

You not only need a good path for current to get to the motor, you also need a good path for the current to get back to the negative post on the battery.

Make sure that starter has a good ground.

Check for a bad grounding strap/cable between the engine and the frame, and to the negative post on the battery.

 

Have you taken the solenoid cover off and pushing the solenoid plunger with your with ignition turned on? This will eliminate the switch and any associated problems with it. Another item to consider, is the starter clutch not doing it's thing. Just reviewed another post and tend to agree with it, so never mind.

 

Check your ground at the starter and the battery ..how tight did you get the jackshqft bolt .? .that bolt doesn't like to be tight,just about hand tight,maybe a lil over to get the tab on a flat .have you tried any of the starters outside the bike .take a set of jumper cables,groung the starter on the mount hole ,the positive pit on the solenoid where the cable connects ,take a piece of wire long enough to reach from that post to where the green wire hooked up .hold the starter and touch the wire to where the green wire goes to the solenoid ...does it run ..?