The bike will prime the pump and start without issue when the battery is freshly charged, or has been running for a while. IF the battery has sat for a while (a full day or more) and NOT been on the battery tender then it will fire over but the fuel pump won't prime first, and therefore not start.
IF I take out the 10amp fuse for the headlight...the fuel pump will prime regardless of if the battery has been charged or not recently. It's a 100% always working solution.
AND I have zero skills w electrical things.
So.
1) put in a toggle switch somewhere in the electrical to be able to shut off the signal to the headlight and get constant starting with this workaround
2) spend 150$ or more on a lithium w more cranking power
3) continue to be frustrated and keep removing my seat to remove the fuse.
I've had it at a dealer and they found no reason for it happening.
Any info/suggestions would be very appreciated.
Cheers,
Don
Sounds like a weak battery. Connect an analog-style voltmeter to the battery. Check voltage:
1. With key OFF.
2. With key ON (headllight should be on.)
3. With key ON and pushing START button.
4. Connect charger to battery, wait an hour, then measure charging voltage.
Report back here.
You have answered your own question in the information you supplied. The headlight is dropping the available power from the battery below the threshold the fuel pump needs to kick in. If this only happens when it's been sitting a while (off the tender) the culprit will be the battery. If it works fine when in use, the charging system is doing it's job but the battery won't hold full power when off charge.
If the battery is doing as you describe, you would probably find you don't have much reserve cranking either and if for some reason it was hard to start and required longer cranking time, would run down very quickly.
A new battery with the highest CCA rating you can get (290 I think) should cure this. I have seen it before and even suffered it on my own bike until I tired of taking the side cover off and thumping the fuel pump into life after a few days parked. That was a very long time ago and the original fuel pump is still ticking away at 200k.
I don't like Lithium batteries, they are unnecessarily expensive, overly sensitive to a range of conditions and not needed. My choice is a brand name 290CCA AGM battery.
Not a bad idea to pop the cover off the end of the fuel pump and lightly file the electrical points. This won't fix the problem but it's still a good idea.
If the battery is the problem it can be easily checked by taking it fully charged to a battery store (just ride the bike in) and have them load test it, they will do it while you wait and not charge you.
Hope this helps
Noel
Noel
Thank you both.
will do some testing this weekend! :-)
Here 'ya go Don: http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=3292.0 (http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=3292.0)