My bike just won't start, I've tried EVERYTHING

Well, some of you know, I bought a 2007 xb12ss at the end of the summer, with 800 miles on it. I rode it for a couple weeks at school, then one day it just clicked repeatedly when I went to start it. Being in a hurry, I continued to press the ignition, and it eventually kicked over.[confused]

The next week, it seemed to start fine. So I went ahead with my trip from Penn State to Ocean City for bike weekend. No problems starting the entire way down or on any of my rides down there. On the way back, we made a stop along the highway, and the bike just clicked wouldn't start or do anything. So I push started it.

Couple times after that the bike was starting fine again, so I was going to bring the bike back home towards Pittsburgh. I went to leave starts fine, I get to the gas station, and won't start, just clicking. I take the battery out, have it tested they say it's good, put it back in, bike starts fine.[confused]

So I bring the bike home, go for some rides around the block, thinking maybe a loose battery cable was all it was, but then I got stranded again after some delicious chinese dinner, and on another trip to the cemetary. Kinda weird push starting a bike in the cemetary...

So I had to come back to school, so I didnt get a chance to work on it untill this week.

So far, I have:

Taken the battery to be load tested, it passed.

Taken the starter out multiple times. It spins fine on the work bench with power applied. I even took it to a starter shop and they said it's like brand new and works fine.

I have swapped in and out all of the relays, they all work.

I have checked all of the fuses, all good.

I have cleaned my connections both at the battery and at the starter.

Checked the voltage at the battery and at the starter, both pretty close to the same.


Some random things I have noticed while working with the bike in the past week.

If I try to start the bike with the clutch pulled in, the starter will just click once while holding the ignition in, if you start with not holding the clutch in, it will click repeatedly while holding the ignition.

The is also a small wire that is connected to both the positive terminal and the negative terminal of the battery, but doesn't go anywhere, it just has a closed off connection at the end[confused].

I went to New Castle Buell today, and was told to have the starter "load tested", has anyone ever heard of this? The starter shop I went to just put power to it, watched it spin, and looked at the solenoid some.

Please give me some advice on what else I can do to fix this frustrating problem.

I brought this issue up, in another thread, but didn't want to continue to hijack someone else's thread.

This is two Buells that my family has had, both are turning out to be problems. I just love the bike so much once it is running.

Any input is appreciated.

when it doesnt start get an ohm/volt meter and while cranking check voltage at both starter wires you should have no less than 10.8 volts if you have no or little volts its probably a bad switch,relay or wire.if you have good voltage its most likely a starter.sometimes a starter will show good on the bench because its just free wheeling but when its trying to turn a load its not strong enough.

i have heard of starter load tests. i think its your battery, i have had batteries pass load tests and be completely failed. ask for an extended load test, and see if you can borrow a battery to rule out it being a battery issue.

if it really isn't the battery, i would check for shorts, and particularly the clutch thing is odd, maybe double check wiring diagram for proper wiring of relay, starter system, (it seems it's been apart a few times)

thats what i can think of so far.
-Thomas

Pull the starter switch assembly off of the handle bars,and clean the contact for the start button.Is is real easy to do.Take some sand paper and polish the contact spots.Please let me know if this helped you.

Cheack all your grounds too not just the wires also where the subframe bolts to the main frame. that has been an issue with mine a couple of times

My 2 cents... Your bike is a 2007, probably with the original battery which is due to be replaced anyway. If I were you I'd throw in a new battery and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't, follow the instructions above and locate the problem. I've wasted a lot of time on problems like this that turned out to be a bad battery that tested OK. Good luck!

you know with only 800 original miles it's gotta be a battery.

800 miles in 4-5 years depending on build date i would say youve got a bulk connector or switch with corroded terminals im with ztied check the starter switch first

could be ur voltage regulator connector going bsd like they use too. they upgraded the part in '08 so '03-'07 had some bad connectors.

I had similar problem with mine and it was the voltage regulator\connector. the new version comes with a new style connector which is better than the original that was on the bike

Sounds like it could possibly be the clutch safety switch.

Not to knock anybodies input,evetyone has good ideas.Try the cheapest first,If that don`t work then spend money.Most of the time it is simple.My switch did the same as what yours is doing,would seem to work less,the colder it got,and a good cleaning did the trick.And 2fargon is correct on a battery that tested good,may not have the balls to turn the starter over.

My bike had a lot of the same symptoms this past summer. It would only start after letting it sit for a few days and eventually it would resort back to the clicking, forcing me to push start.

I checked EVERYTHING as well except for the VOLTAGE REGULATOR CONNECTOR.

Low and behold, when I pulled the connector apart, the positive pin inside the connector was fried from arching. It was almost fully corroded, white, and had melted half of the connector housing. Real pain in the ass getting it apart due to the melted plastic. I had to buy a new voltage regulator even though it worked fine because the arching inside the connector was so bad it completely destroyed the little positive metal pins on both the regulator and battery lead sides of the connector.(This was probably because I kept push starting it and riding it thinking and assuming it was a battery or starter issue.)

Went to the harley dealer and ordered a new connector. It only comes with the female pins already set inside the connector so my advice would be to check your connector immediately to see if one of the leads is arching and pray that none of the male pins are damaged or you'll have to buy a new regulator as well as a new connector like I did. It ended up costing me around 90 bucks all together. If only I had checked the connector sooner I'd only be out about 20 bucks. Hope this helps!

Batt.... I'm a service writer but usta wrench. Had a similer situation last week. To make a long story short. 6hrs. Later, it was the battery..

i have a 2009 xb12 ss , my bike had an almost identical problem . i changed the handlebar switch houseing to a new one and the problem went away

Well, I tore apart the handlebar ignition switch housing today, all the connections were clean and fine. So I called a starter shop about the starter being load tested, and they said I could bring it down, but to also try a new battery.

Tomorrow I am going to try the new battery, and try to hook power to the starter straight from the battery, kind of eliminate all relays and everything. If it starts the bike with power straight to the starter, well then I guess it's a wiring problem, that Ill track down with the wiring diagram.

Also had already checked the voltage regulator, that is not the problem.

Sad thing is, Sunday I have to head back out to school, so it'll be another three weeks before I come home for xmas break to continue working on it.

Took the bike to New Castle Buell and HD today. Hopefully they can find out what the deal is with it, and hopefully it doesn't cost me a fortune. Either way, I hope I can ride back out to Penn State after spring break.

Sorry to hear about this - don't know why I missed this thread. Best of luck.

P.S. - I did a quick read and I didn't read anything about your ecm. I wonder if it could be the ecm has a bug.

and if that doesn't work use the persuader on it