my genorator was not charging, I unded up running out the battery, had to get a jump a few times to get her home, Got a new genorator, put the battery on the charger, hooked it all back up and it worked fime for a little while, started right up for about two days, now I get this whine like the starter motor is just spinning and then the spinning noise will start to slow down and then it will fire up. It sounds like the starter is spinning freeley and then slowly engages the bendix and turns the motor over. I know this can't be a good thing, I bought a new battery filled it with the acid and charged it for about 3 hours. put it in and It does the same thing. Did I not charge the battery enough, could the lack of juice cause this, Anybody know what this sound like? Thanks for the help.

Daryl

 

ShovelHD......You say your generator went out and you bought another one which seemed to charge the battery up? After that you began to have starter problems?
If that is the case, it is only coincidence. The generator recharges the battery and the battery supplies power to the starter. The generator and starter are in no way connected, except for the fact that they both are connected to the battery.

What you may have is a bad starter bendix, or more likely it is the starter solenoid going bad.
What year model Sportster do you have?
Is it electric start only, or does it also have a k/s lever?
Do you have a factory manual for the machine?

I may be able to help you with your problem if your bike is 1978 or older Sportster. If it is newer than '78, I may not be of much help.
I have the manuals and information on trouble shooting the problem to determine what the cause is, and I will be more than happy to provide you with this info.
I cannot attach any info here on the forum, but if you want to email me with answers to the three questions above, I will be glad to help out.........................piniongear

 

Pinion,
My sporty is a 77, The starter and bendix was replaced with new about 3 months ago, It has a kick also so I have been using that. (man thats a pain in the leg) Now I know what the frase sporty knee comes from. I thought it might be the solenoid, so I went out and bought one today. will be replacing that sunday. Do you think that is the problem? I have the HD manual for it, looking how to change it out looks a bit tricky. I got a buddy who is an HD michanic he also thinks it is the solenoid. so for now I will be kicking her over.. Thanks for the help,
Daryl

 

Shovelhead.....That manual has all the info you need to discover what the problem is. Since you have a new starter and bendix, about that is left is the starter relay (aka the solenoid). I bet that is what is the problem. This piece allows power to flow from the battery to the starter bendix, then into the starter motor.
Just replace the solenoid and try that. Let me know what develops.........pg

 

Thanks PG, I will let you know how it turned out...

 

Well we replaced the solenoid, and when we hooked everything back up we fried The positive wire from the solenoid to the relay. Something must have grounded out. Relpaced the fried wire hooked it all back up again and got nothing but a clicking noise. Replaced the relay hooked it all back up once more and now I got nothing when you hit the starter button. I think I must have the starter button wire on the wrong post I will change that and see if that works... Any Ideas?

 

OK, first of all when a wire cooks it is because there is a ground somewhere. If you hooked another wire up replacing the burned wire, the same event should happen again. Since that was not the case. something burned somewhere, leaving you with an open circuit.
Begin at the start button after you disconnect the wire going to the relay's small terminal. Insulate this wire end from grounding out.
1) With the ignition switch turned to run, do you read 12v at one of the two wires on the starter button? If yes, go to 2.
2) With the switch turned to run, push down the starter button and hold it down. Do you get 12v on the other wire from the button? If yes, so far so good. Go to 3.
3) With the switch turned to run and holding down the start button, do you get 12v at the relay wire that you first disconnected? If yes, then everything upstream from this is OK. Go to 4.
4) Disconnect all wires from the relay. Test the relay like this:
a)Using a 12v test light (or a wire with a 12v bulb wired into it) connect one end to the battery minus post.
b)Connect the other end of the test light (or wire w/ bulb) to one of the large terminals on the relay.
c)Connect a wire from the battery minus (-) post to the grounded base of the relay body.
d)Connect a wire from the battery positive (+) post to the other large terminal of the relay.
e)Connect a wire from the battery positive post to the small terminal of the relay.

When this last connection is done the light bulb or test light bulb should light up if the relay is in working order.
If the relay checks out as OK, you have established previously that 12v is getting to the relay so the next thing to look at is the solenoid.
I will not go into that test procedure here so that it does not get more confusing than I have already made it. See what result you get from these test before moving further on towards the solenoid/starter motor...................pg