QuestionYesterday, I was riding my 2003 Yamaha V-Star around town. Nothing unusal, no spills, no drops, nothing. This morning, I hopped on my bike to go to work. I set the choke, turned the key, the light came on. I heard two clicks, then nothing. I turned the key off, turned it on again, the light came back on, I heard one click, then nothing. I tried again, this time no lights, no click, nothing. I checked the battery charge- it registered fully charged. I checked the battery connection, and the starter solenoid. So far all of the fuses are fine. What do you think? What should I check next?
AnswerHi Dee.
I see five possible problems here.
1) The battery is shot. Check the battery with a meter as well as with a hygrometer. The meter will tell you how much of a charge (in volts) that the battery is holding, but the hygrometer will tell you the condition of each of the cells in the battery. If even one cell is bad, the battery will not start the bike or hold a proper charge (volts and amps).
2) The stator is failing/failed. When you can get the bike started, check the voltage across the battery terminals. You should be getting 13 - 15 Volts DC. Anything less and the stator is not working.
3) Short in the starter system. Check wiring with multimeter and look for bad/dirty connections and obvious breaks in the wiring.
4) Short in the charging system. If you have this problem, it could cause problems 1 and 2.
Check the wiring as above in #3.
5) The starter solenoid is bad. Since the bike is less than 5 years old, it is highly unlikely, but if you jump the solenoid leads and the bike starts, then it could be a possible problem.
You will need the repair manual for wiring diagrams and other testing specs.
DO NOT REPLACE ANYTHING UNTILL YOU HAVE CHECKED ALL RELATED PROBLEMS. This may save you from replacing good parts unneccesarily. The battery is the only given. If you find something wrong with it, replace it.
Let me know what you find.
Good luck.
FALCON
