08 Not Starting in the rain

[busanutt]

Took my 08 out for a 400 mile ride today and got stuck in the pouring rain. 1st drove 10 miles and met up with a buddy started the bike no problem went 20 more miles in the rain meet up with another buddy started there no problem. Went 130 more miles stopped for them to get gas I then tryed to start the bike and nothing I had all my lights needles moved heard the fuel pump but when I hit the button it dimmed the headlight but nothing. I then checked the kickstand sensor pushed it all the way in by hand still nothing. Toggled my kill switch a few times, checked the fuses all was good pulled the wires off of the battery and cleaned all connections still nothing. Finnally pushed her in 2nd and dumped the clutch fired right up. Here is the kicker at this time the rain had stopped and we had 85 miles left to go to our destination before turnning around to head home we get there I shut her down turn the key back on hit the start button she fires right back up..WTF... Im thinking i had mosture in the start button or something. We went to 5 different places after that and she didnt have an issue. Im leaving in 6 weeks to go cross country and dont need this now please help. she only has 6000 miles and has never missed a beat.

 

[GIXERHP]

Sounds like a bad stator or regulator!

Time for some testing

Really dont think the rain has any thing to do with it!

 

[kromdom]

hs the rectifier recall been done on your bike?

 

[GIXERHP]

Good call!

hs the rectifier recall been done on your bike?

 

[busanutt]

The recall has been done when i bought it last year only has 3500 miles on the bike since this has been done. Could that really be gone at this point. If that was the case would she still push start if that totally craped out on me?

 

[busanutt]

And i have only riden the bike maybe 10 times most of the rides were avg 400 miles at a time only around town 4 times or so

 

[methyman]

Check the simple things like battery, out put of stator to see what is going on. If you jump start the bike with a car and it starts then something wrong with charging system or possible battery.

 

[busanutt]

I havent put a meter on the stator yet but pluggin it in to the battery tender said that it had full charge. I would think that if it was the stator wasnt fully charging the battery when I hit the start button it should atleast crank. Esp. after 2 hours of straight riding and it didnt. It acted as if I had a bad connection on the battery terminals so I cleaned them and still nothing.

 

[GIXERHP]

If the battery has a dead cell, it will still stow a full charge!
With what you stated above the bike dose not see much use, i would have the battery load tested!

I havent put a meter on the stator yet but pluggin it in to the battery tender said that it had full charge. I would think that if it was the stator wasnt fully charging the battery when I hit the start button it should atleast crank. Esp. after 2 hours of straight riding and it didnt. It acted as if I had a bad connection on the battery terminals so I cleaned them and still nothing.

 

[dadofthree]

From reading your post. Not the start button, you said the headlight went out when you pushed it to crank. It sounds like the clutch lever interlock to me given your post. It's the only thing you didn't mess with. My bike does this from time to time bc I have a damaged clutch lever. There was also a key switch wire routing recall on the '08 Easy to check the charging system, wouldn't hurt to do that.

NOT A MECHANIC

 

[mr8ball]

Sounds like the clutch lever interlock to me as well. Do you have adjustable levers on it? Being you got it to start after popping the clutch it just sounds like it was stuck. Just a thought

 

[busanutt]

By bike is completely stock. I didn’t mention it above but while i was stuck I did end up unplugging the two ends that connect to the clutch lever to see what there condition was, they looked nice and clean to me so I plugged them back in but still nothing. But now that I am thinking of it I will clean the ends even if they don’t need it. No stone unturned. I was really starting to run scared when I first tried to push start her I was in 3rd and nothing so I went to 6th and that was a waste of time called the wife she saw on the internet to try 2nd busa fired right away. I have a 95 vmax and it needs to be in at least 3rd but 4th seems better.

 

[busanutt]

thanks for the post all expecially dadofthree and mr8ball im 99% sure that lever interlock was it because when I unplug it and try to start it now it does the same thing as what happened yesterday all lights are on and the headlight dims when u hit the start button reconnect everything and she fires right up. is there any way of unsticking that interlock when it sticks or simply push start her?

 

[methyman]

That is great news to get the bike running. Check the switch using the multimeter to make sure the interlock switch is not acting up.