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Aftermarket stereo loses memory on SOME starts, just enuff to be aggravating. Checked my grounds, checked the solenoid contacts( looked good), but still does it. Even off spike button. Any ideas? Oh, put a napa battery in and that's really when it started happening, considering buyin another.. but thought I'd ask first..
Get the battery load checked, if it's good then start with the obvious stuff, use a voltmeter to see what happens when you hit the start button. It might be the starter getting tired, it could be a frayed\broken wire inside the insulation in the harness. It's going to be a hunt until you find the issue, the manual will help. I have similar issues with my '94 not wanting to start with the button, 75% of the time I have to jump the terminals with a piece of wire and it starts right up.
Put a volt meter on the battery and start the bike. do the same up at the memory wire for the radio as well.
If the voltage drops below say 11 volts at either, its the radio that is glitching from too low of voltage during starting that causing the memory lose.
P.S, the dip in voltage is kind of normal to a degree, and the reason that you really want a radio with back up battery for it memory as well.
Your bike has a volt meter on it..... whats it reading? What does it do when you're at idle and use the turn signals? I ran thru my whole wiring system cause the volt meter was acting up and in the end it was right! My ignition switch was going bad (but still worked) and the volt meter was the first to notice it. You've got a thousand connectors to go from the switch to anything on the bike. While riding (RPMs up) everythings ok but at idle or starting if there are bad connections you'll see all kinds of weird **** happening. At idle turn on the turn signals, they need juice, see what the volt meter does.
Simple test, may show you something or maybe not but no harm done....
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