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95 FLSTC not starting

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catman

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95 Heritage not starting up. battery has been on trickle charger. I turn ignition but the lights go low and then the battery dies out. Like it's not pulling enough amps to turn the starter. Battery has been tested to hold load. The solenoid gets real hot when I make several attempts. One time the ground wire (mounted on to frame) started smoking. What should I check first?
 
Welcome catman, were there any problems before now or is this just out of the blue, has it been in storage? When you say lights go low & then battery dies after ign is turned on makes it sound like a bad battery, how was it load tested? What kind of battery is it? I've seen battery that will read good voltage untill a load is applied, then go dead. Also does it try to turn the starter or ckick? The groung wire melting makes it sound like the starter is fried. A little more history might help.
 
Catman, welcome to the HDTimeline, and your first post. It definitely sounds like bad battery...if bad cell(s) voltage will be down 2V each...ignition module threshold is 9V...so if the lights dim more the 1/3 brightness, no battery voltage left to fire spark, much less turn the starter. Is that battery the original OEM battery, it may be time...? Scrape and clean all the primary high current connections, don't forget to clean the small terminal and wires going to the solenoid. You could try to jumper with a car/truck battery (but not running to prevent voltage transients from frying your HD charging system) just to be sure.

One thing is that the bad battery may be indicative of a bad charging system and the dreaded bad stator/regulator scenario considering the year of the bike and how long the bike has been "limping" along before you had this final problem. So you might test the charging system as well. Go to the Self Help section to find related info, or the Search tab to find related threads...
 
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Welcome Catman. I have a concern of the battery cables being bad. Simple test is to, one at a time, bypass the main ground cable using one side of a set of jumper cables. One end clamped to battery- and other end to grounding bolt at the starter and try it. Then the same thing with positive side. Keep us informed and good luck.:)
 
Chopper, Yes, I've had the bike sitting for about a month or two. It usually starts right up. It's been on a battery tender. I tried to start it again today after sitting a few days on the tender. The ground wire was smoking again and the starter motor got real hot, smoking. It's a python starter motor. What would cause this? Does the primary have anything to do with this? I also have had the battery get real low after a ride, a hard start sometimes.

I don't feel like taking it to a mechanic yet. He is the one that load tested the battery and said the battery was good. He said it could be a couple of things but that he had to see it. He had mentioned that if it was a starter problem he had to go through the primary to get to the starter.
 
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to get the starter out he will have to open the primary as the drive end of the starter works on the ring gear thats on the outside of the clutch basket

Brian
 
If you got good voltage and with the starter and ground smoking sounds like the starter is fried, you can pop the primary primary cover off and have a look, maybe standing back, no pets or chirldren around touch the starter button and see if anything happens, if nothing but smoke I would pull the starter and replace, I think the manual will call for removing the oil tank, no fun, but once in a great while I have had luck getting it out. Don't forget to disconect the battery before doing. It is weird that a starter would go sitting in the garage, I would double check the ground, not just at the battery but at the frame also, with a wrench, not just a voltmeter. Let us know what you find.
 
Evo's are notorious for battery cables loosening up at the battery. Make sure your cables are tight at the battery. If the battery cables are stock, they're old.....change them. I put Magnecor cables on my '97 Heritage along with a Spyke 1.4K starter and never had any starting problems; however, I still had to keep an eye on the cables loosening up at the battery terminals. Good luck.
 
If the battery cables have never been replaced now may be a good time to do that. Their cheap - Also visualy inspect all connections for rust.
 
Make sure the bike is in neutral, might even want to pull the plugs and ground the caps to the frame. Without compression, the engine should turn easily...unless something terrible like siezed rings or something "locking" the starter...either way it should not smoke. The cables have been on the bike for 15 years, check after trying to start to see if any of the cables are hot as well...they should not be, as well as each of the terminal and eyelet ends...hot means resistance and loss.
 
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