Help, starter and or ground issues?

[Dellinger]

I've been bringing an 08 XB12Scg back to life since a piston rod bearing failure killed it last September. I 100% rebuilt the engine with factory new parts ( crank, cams, pistons, cyl's, lifters, push rods, oil pump guts, you name it it's new. I also had the primary cover, oil pump housing and frame rails powder coated.

It's all back together and wile I was priming the oil pump I noticed the battery only lasted a few short tries before it needed to be plugged back in. I purchased a factory new HD battery and it worked like a charm. After priming the engine till the oil light went out I installed the plugs and fired it up without any issues.

The next day I went to start it up and all I heard was faint clicking from the relay in the fuse box. I searched the forum for possible problems and found a poor ground to be some peoples fix. I ran a jumper cable from the negative to the rocker cover bolt and tried again. This time the noise was the loud clicking and flashing dash lights like all the videos had of ground issues before they used the jumper cable. The guy in the vid (onelogue) got the bike to turn over with the jumper.
I was wondering if I made a mistake by using lock tight on every bolt causing a ground interference or the frame rail powder coating being in screw holes causing grounding issues. I can fix ground with a jumper wire if I need to.

Does it sound like my starter could be seized up or fried? What tests should I perform to verify a bad starter if it is suspect?

 

[thrstrmech]

have the ground points on the seat rails been coated over, the forward top mounting bolt hole area and rear where the center tail section bolts onto both rails? check your service manual for the steps to test the starter, chapter 5, I think.

 

[Dellinger]

Thanks, yes, the rails are completely powder coated. It's weird how everything worked fine, then "kaput"...

 

[50dro]

Do this to test the grounds on the seat rails. If it fires right up, you need to make the grounds better.

 

[thrstrmech]

powder coating needs to be removed from each mounting point on the inside of the rails, and also midway on either rail where the negative battery cable and main wire harness grounds (high voltage) left side and main wire harness grounds (low voltage) right side. chapter 7, main wire harness section has a great pic of the areas you need to clean up on the rails as describe before. there's a pilot bonding brush that's used with a drill made for removing material from around holes that you can get from local hardware store to remove the powder coating. takes just a few minutes to remove the coating. google search- pilot bonding brush

 

[Dellinger]

Thanks everyone, will do this weekend.

 

[Dellinger]

Thanks Thrstrmech, the brush did the trick. I also replaced the negative battery cable and re assembled everything with dielectric grease. Turned over just like George Washington in his grave back in 2012.

 

[mrlogix]

you mean 2008 and then again in 2012. Just sayin'........

 

[drev500]

LOL

 

[blackoutt]

powder coating needs to be removed from each mounting point on the inside of the rails, and also midway on either rail where the negative battery cable and main wire harness grounds (high voltage) left side and main wire harness grounds (low voltage) right side. chapter 7, main wire harness section has a great pic of the areas you need to clean up on the rails as describe before. there's a pilot bonding brush that's used with a drill made for removing material from around holes that you can get from local hardware store to remove the powder coating. takes just a few minutes to remove the coating. google search- pilot bonding brush

Just figured out my new to me bikes issues with this detail. Previous owner painted the subframe, sanded off the grounds okay but didn't mask off or sand off the ends of the rails where they mount to the frame! Quick cleanup of those and all my electrical gremlins went away. Thanks!

 

[njloco]

Very nicely done !

 

[AnFear]

Hi, 09 Ulysses XT. Bike wouldn't start. Checked the relay, good. I was going to check all of my grounds and then replace the starter if it still didn't start. After a bunch of Google searching found soeone on Reddit with the same problem. They said check the light fuse. I did and that was the problem. Just posting this in case someone else has the same problem. The light fuse is not an obvious place to look.

 

[Barrett]

Hi, 09 Ulysses XT. Bike wouldn't start. Checked the relay, good. I was going to check all of my grounds and then replace the starter if it still didn't start. After a bunch of Google searching found soeone on Reddit with the same problem. They said check the light fuse. I did and that was the problem. Just posting this in case someone else has the same problem. The light fuse is not an obvious place to look.

XB starter system designed exactly like XL and XR1200 systems:
1-tiny amount of power goes from "start-switch" to starter relay
2-power transferred from starter relay to starter solenoid
3-starter solenoid receives direct maximum battery power via positive cable
4-starter solenoid transfers maximum battery power to the starter assembly
it all begins at the "start-switch" which receives its' miniscule amount of power from the headlight circuitry.

 

[Sdrxb12s]

God love that woman barrett