I'll buy a beer for the person who guesses right.
Here's the deal. 2005 Electra Glide 72K miles on the clock. Had the
engine re-manufactured by the MOCO, the dealer rebuilt the transmission,
clutch, etc. Got about 700 miles on the rebuild. Has a carburetor, not
EFI. Starter and related electronics all original, never been touched. A
2 year old HD battery. They did a load test on the battery (twice,
actually) and it shows OK. Not perfect, but both times it was just into
the acceptable range. They checked the charging system last week and it
performs within acceptable parameters.
When I got it back it started great, but after about 100 break-in miles
it began hesitating when starting. It would barely turn over for the
first revolution or two. After those one or two slow "grunts" it would
suddenly spin fast, start right up and run fine. It's been getting worse
as time passes. Now it is exhibiting the symptoms all the time and the
symptoms are more pronounced. Below is a link to a video of it when the
symptoms were rather moderate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQA0Sdp97gE
Cleaned the battery and starter connections. No change. Still hesitates.
I hooked a DVOM to the battery to see what it showed during the starting
process.
- Battery showed 12.65v with ignition off. Border line acceptable
voltage. Should be 12.8v or more, but I had been starting it/shutting it
off a whole bunch the night before and didn't put a charger/tender on it
afterward. Might have been low cuz of that.
- Turned on the ignition and got 12.03v with all the lights on, etc.
- Hit the starter button and the voltage dropped to 6v for the duration
of the hesitation (about 2 revolutions - 1 to 2 seconds) and then the
engine began spinning fast and the voltage went to 10v at the same time.
Then it started. Shut it off.
- Did that about 8 times in a row with the same results.
I don't know if the drop to 6v is a symptom or a cause. Could be
something is mechanically dragging down the starter and putting a severe
drain on the battery. Or...it could be that the battery is bad and can't
poop out the current for the first few seconds. OTOH, once it starts
spinning fast it keeps on spinning. I could just about ride around the
house on the starter alone. <shrug> Could be corroded battery cables.
Not the connections, but the cables themselves. I dunno. It's a mystery.
It's at the dealer as we speak...er, as we type...and they are trying to
track it down. I'm not necessarily asking for advice cuz I'm tired of
fooling with it myself. Let the dealer figure it out. I just thought it
might be a good conversation topic and we might learn something from it.
I'll be sure to let ya know what they find out.
Andy aka Big Stinkie