[ronin149]

So I got off work today and made a beeline for the door. I was going to be out of the parking lot in 30 seconds and get a jump on rush hour.

But it was not to be....

I jumped on the bike and hit the starter. It cranked for a very small fraction of a second and then stopped. I tried it again and the same thing happened. The neutral light would get very dim with the starter button down. It acted like it had water in the jug.

I put it in fifth gear and tried to push it forward. Nothing. I rolled it backward and it moved, after that it would roll forward. I tried the starter and it cranked, but would not start. After some trying and some sputtering, it ran. On the way home it ran like the top it has been every other day but today.

I got no fluid out of the exhaust pipe. No water (no surprise) no gas, coolant, or oil.

When I got home the bike was a little low on oil.

Any ideas?

 

[xDownSetx]

Dead battery sounds likely. Put it on a slow charge, or even better replace it with an AGM or gel battery. How old is the battery? Might want to take a voltmeter to the battery and check it at 4k RPM's to see if it's getting proper voltage, just in case.

 

[honest bob]

Check it over to see if someone may have knocked it over and set it back up eventually (after oil ran into intake). The oil may not burn well when it first starts, and you may not have noticed it when it did finally burn off. The sputtering could have been wet (oil) plugs. Just putting 1 and 1 together.:fineprint: Add to that a tired battery and...

Wee wont start, acts hydrolocked.
When I got home the bike was a little low on oil.

 

[kick]

I'm in the weak battery camp on this one.

 

[BillZ]

Battery. Not hydro-locked because NOTHING moves when you do that. Don't ask me how I know...:yikes:
:beatnik:

 

[ronin149]

Thanks for the responses!

It really did act like it siezed; just a quick sound from the starter while it took up slack, then nothing.

I'm leaning toward bad battery, but it would be a severe failure; the kind where a perfectly good battery just quits instantly.

The charging system is good. The battery is strong, both before and after. The bike runs like always. The battery is original on an '08.

Honest Bob's idea about a tip over makes sense, as I could smell my dirty oil once I got it running. There was no smoke.

BTW, finally got my first check and got that oil changed. A friend of mine said it might be the dirty oil, but I don't buy that.

 

[garvinzoom]

Check for a bad connection at the battery, starter and the grounds. Not sure if this bike has a remote mount solenoid but check it also for loose connections. Electrical issues can be frustrating but sometimes the basics are all that need addressed.
Are there any new scratches to support the knocked over and reset theory? If I made the bone head mistake of knocking somebody's bike over and had no intentions of reporting it I would not hang out to set it back up..lol

 

[BigMan73]

The battery is original on an '08.

So the battery is at least 3 years old!
It makes a lot of sense for such a battery to die.

I don't know what the temperatures are in UT where you live, but extreme temperatures are known to reduce a battery's life.

 

[ronin149]

The temperatures have really dropped in the last few days. It was 85F yesterday, needed a coat to get to work!

It has been 95F every day for weeks. The bike had been parked in the sun all day. The bike mounted thermometer read 127F.

I just laid the bike down in some fresh road paint; the only way to tell if it was tipped over would be to look for bald spots in the road paint on my bike!

I'm not going to stress about it. If it's the battery, it will die or it could last a few more years. If it was the engine, I'm sure it will break again the next time I'm 500 miles from home!

 

[SV Racing Parts]

So I got off work today and made a beeline for the door. I was going to be out of the parking lot in 30 seconds and get a jump on rush hour.

But it was not to be....

Any ideas?

Hi, Check your battery posts to make sure both connections are tight, I have had this experience,

Let me know,

Enjoy the ride, and best regards,
Blair

 

[DougInKY]

The temperatures have really dropped in the last few days. It was 85F yesterday, needed a coat to get to work!

It has been 95F every day for weeks. The bike had been parked in the sun all day. The bike mounted thermometer read 127F.

I just laid the bike down in some fresh road paint; the only way to tell if it was tipped over would be to look for bald spots in the road paint on my bike!

I'm not going to stress about it. If it's the battery, it will die or it could last a few more years. If it was the engine, I'm sure it will break again the next time I'm 500 miles from home!

+1 on the loose connections. A loose connection at the battery (either pole) will cause exactly the problem you were describing. It is not hard to check, just pop the seat off and take a box end wrench to your terminals. They don't have to cranked down until things distort (have seen this often on cars), just tight.

 

[bigboy292000]

Sort of unrelated but... related:

3 weeks ago I get into my car (Accord) and try to start it. I get a click, blinking lights on the dash and then nothing. Nada. Dead as a doorknob. So I wonder - what the... I bought a new battery about a year ago?

I open the hood and take a closer look; there is this crack on my battery...

It's been veryhot here in TX, my car is parked outside (bike is in the garage ). I guess tere was a weak spot in battery plastic and it cracked due to heat, and dried out. I took it back to Autozone, got credit for it, bought a new one...

The guy was sort of amazed looking at it. :jawdrop:

Weird stuff happens.