My 84 evo sounds like the battery is low when I go to start it, not spinning up like normal. Battery is fully charged so I'm wondering if this is a starter issue. When starting you can here the chains, screws and gears all turning but the crank only catches for a cycle or two before whining down. New starter installed less than five years ago. Any clues what road I'm on here?

 

84,

If you have checked all connections for tightness and corrosion, I would pull the starter and check the brushes and the bushings.In my experience,when a starter is dragging and all the connections are tight and corrosion free, the brushes or the bushings are usuallybad. Just my opinion.

later........

 

A couple of thoughts...have you messed with any of the wires recently? I mean, have you flexed any old battery cables back and forth recently that may have broken the wires inside the insulation where you can't see the damage? Also, have you ensured that the starter is bolted tight in place and that it is making a good ground contact with it's body? Another thing you might try is to run an additional ground wire (like one of those smaller woven ground cables) from the battery negative terminal or ground lug on the frame directly to the starter body to ensure a good ground. The solenoid starter motor contacts could be worn out and arcing which would create a high resistance connection in the circuit.
I wish you luck...I hate electrical problems. Mine are usually intermittent which makes it even harder to figure out.

 

It sounds like the battery is weak even though it's fully charged. Try to swap it out just to check. I bought a portable jump-start power pack for a car. If one of those cranks it over real fast you know the battery isn't doing its job. That means... time for a new AGM (no liquid acidto spill) battery. Mine is HD and cost around 85 bucks from an indy.

You may have thought of that already so my other thought is to take apart your starter solenoid and clean all of the contacts. There are a copper bolt and washer that get corroded and pitted. Sand them back down to shiney copper. Some poeple might grease the contacts but I think that would collect dirt. Those copper contacts pass all of the current for the starter so if they are too dirty that would slow it down. Make shure all of the large contact nuts are snug ensuring good electrical connections. Grease up the moving parts like the plunder rod (or whatever it's called). It tends to get rusty and could stick.

DON"T WORRY! There is not that much stuff in there to screw up and you have always wondered what was in there anyway.

And like the others have said, add a ground from the battery negative (near the frame) to the starter body. Don't hang extra crap off the battery. It gets too crowded.

My 85 sat for two months this winter without a charge and it fired right up last weekend.

 

- weak battery.

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Take an amp reading on the cable to the starter,if it is over 200 amps your starter is getting weak.

 

This so called whining down sounds like maybe the starter drive Thats the gear that meshes with the ring gear on the clutch housing when you hit the starter button When they go badthey make a whining sound Just a thought

 

Had the same problem on my 87 FLHTC, it was one of the brushes in the starter, (which had just been replaced ), was not making contact, causing the starter to be too weak to turn the engine over more than once. Reset the brushes, started right up.

 

I agree that it is likely the starter drive. I had the same problem on mine last year and it was the starter drive. I was lucky that the part was stocked here locally so I was able to fix it pretty quick.

 

i been having the same problem, i went through 4 starter this year . Finally figure out my starter housing bolts that go through the inner primary were loose. tighten up bolts and installed new starter , no problems after that