Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Intermittent no start

Hello everyone.

Been having an issue lately with my '05 America, roughly 13K miles on the odometer. About 2 weeks ago I went for a ride for about two hours. I stopped by my parents house for about 45 minutes and upon leaving, she wouldn't start. Tried with the choke off and on. After about a minute, I could smell gas, so now I'm thinking it is flooded. We leave it sit for about 10 minutes, and try again. Nothing. On the way, all back roads, no gas stations, I was somewhat concerned about running low, but I didn't have to turn it to reserve. I think I had 98 miles on the trip meter. While trying to start, I did flip it to reserve with no luck. My dad had a small gas can, so just for the heck of it, we added about 1/2 gallon. Don't know if it was just coincidence, but finally came to life!

Left their house, and stopped at my brother's (family visiting day I guess) and was there for a beer, probably only about 20 minutes or so. She started fine leaving there, so now I stopped for gas and no issue starting again. Got home and parked in the driveway for it to cool off before parking in the shed.

Now this time, no starty. Again, the smelled gas so I figured no spark. Went to get the typical tools and pulled the spark plug, held against a good ground, confirmed no spark. I'm thinking, great, another bad CDI. I installed a Pro-Com a few years ago after running on one cylinder. It has been fine since and I found the box with receipt; bought back in 2011. So I thought I would try the easiest thing possible, pulled the battery, charged it, and reinstalled (this was yesterday). Installed the battery and started right up. So I polished her up and go for a short ride looking for a new helmet (will post that in a few minutes in the other section, looking for a Fulmer helmet I cannot find).

Anyway, rode for about 25 minutes, it was fairly warm yesterday, about 85 degrees and I was stuck in traffic half the time. Arrived at my destination, walked in side for a about 10 minutes, seen a Ducati 1098 and finally came to the realization I am too old to ride a crotch rocket again (had a R1 before my America). Went outside and got on, no start again Waiting a few minutes as I didn't want to flood it, and no start. Pushed her over in the shade, trying to figure out what to do now. I didn't have too much confidence of riding home. Should I call someone with a trailer, a tow truck (did and would have cost me $125.00, so no on that), start pushing (don't think so, didn't want to be seen by those HD riders). Sat there for another 20 minutes or so, I tried one last time, and she started right up. Got home as fast as possible and am thinking that this is lovely because now I have an intermittent problem that is difficult to diagnose. Parked the bike in the driveway again and it started every time I tried:
1. Leaving it sit to cool off, started
2. Let it run at a high idle to try to create heat under the gas tank, started
3. Checked the voltage at the battery: not running about 12.2 volts, running at idle: about 13.4 volts.

Did about 10 starts with no issues. Put the bike away and did the same thing today with no problems. Now what do you think I should do? Don't really want to just throw parts at it, but now I am not very confident riding any distance and worrying about if I stop; no start. Thought of replacing the CDI and both coils, but as everyone here knows, that isn't an inexpensive proposition.

Please let me know any ideas?

So was actually able to duplicate the problem at home. I think I've ruled out the low or bad battery. Tried jumping it to ensure full starting power, and it still didn't start.

I would pull the battery and have it tested at one of the chain auto parts stores, they generally do it free of charge. Your battery reading of 12.2 volts seems low, it should be at least 12.5 volts. Mine for example is usually 12.73 volts with the bike off and 14.6 Volts at idle. Another member on here spoke with Procom and was told that these units don't like anything under 12.5 volts, a weak battery could be your culprit. I have read that a 12 volt battery is considered fully charged at 12.6 volts. I have a Procom as well and have come to suspect that the cold start Procom users report is likely related to low voltage outputs from weak regulator/rectifiers, but a weak battery will cause starting issues too.

could be coils hard to say could be a loose or bad fuse, maybe coroded or getting loose or hot, sometimes they look ok but are actually cracked and the heat will sometimes cause no contact. Side stand switch? electrical is a funney thing, someone with more knowledge will chime in i am sure. Do y ou use the kill switch at all when you are done riding?

If it cranked up again after sitting that rules out battery, kickstand switch, kill switch or most any other switch. About the only thing electrical that's fickle would be the coils or the igniter. And even then if you had a bad coil it probly would fire up, but would run crappy. I would place the igniter on the top of the list of suspects.

One more thing, check to make sure that your battery terminals are tight and not loose. I once had a loose negative terminal. The bike would die while I was riding, I would pull over and it would start back up. Drove me crazy, until I realized that the negative terminal was loose.

Well....I think I found the problem (knock on wood). I took the battery out yesterday to have it tested. The gentleman at Battery Warehouse said it is actually as good, if not better, than a new one. So took it home and placed it back in it's home, and low and behold, the positive terminal lug snapped between the lug and the crimp. From the looks of it, this may have been an ongoing issue because there seems to be a bit of corrosion. I think the terminal had been cracked to at least 50% of it's original width for awhile.

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I also did find that the short piece of larger red wire, probably around 10 or 8 gage, was rubbing against the frame and the conductors were showing. I'm surprised it didn't cause a blown fuse. This is probably something I would recommend checking. I wrapped this with a couple layers of shrink tubing and rerouted the cable away from the frame. This may explain my very intermittent cut out issues for about a year when around 2,500-3,500 RPM and then twisting the throttle.

So far so good. I started and shut off the bike about 20 times yesterday and about 10 times today with no problem. It may be my imagination, but I even thing the neutral light and headlight are brighter than before. I guess this can be explained that before the voltage was present, but not enough current was allowed to pass the faulty, cracked, stress-causing part.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks to everyone for all the ideas.

Well Johnny Bravo I'm glad you found your problem (hopefully). But reading your verbose ( ) intro story, you said it would crank when it cooled off. That's odd that a corroded or broken terminal would cause that. Anyway, good news.

Glad to hear you got sorted .