Working on an 88 FXR, guy complains that he replaced the battery like 5 times in the last 4 years. The negative batt terminal keeps melting off. He brought the bike over to me, it has nothing working, so start disconnecting the fryed neg batt terminal and suddenly everything comes on (key was on). So I tighten it down real good and try starting the bike, it will turn one rev then stop on compression, continuing to hold the button it will then crank over but I noticed the neg batt terminal litterally melting into molten led, once it starts it's good, but eventually the battery is garbage, and needs replacing. The motor is mostly stock with an Andrews cam and a compufire elite one single fire ignition and drag pipes. Could it just need new cables (obviously these are now shot) but could the starter be shot too??

 

Check out the draw on the starter/solenoid. Something is drawing a lot of juice, almost like a dead short !!!

John

 

yes and yes

 

Thanks guys, he's gonna crap himself when I tell him that. Leaning towards an Allballs or a Spyke starter??

 

The amps. required to melt a battery post are way up there in the danger zone . You are lucky the bike has not gone up in flames.
Check the starter and starter solenoid for shorting to ground while they are operating.
Replace any cables that are damaged.
I would have the starter and starter solenoide checked/rebuilt by any local automotive electrical shop.

 

Checked some other posts regarding this problem and advise to check for any possible way the battery posts could be shorted ., such as a aftermarket metal based seat etc. etc.