Slow to start

[thumperjsa]

Took my 80g out for a short ride today (about 20 minutes). I turned the bike off for about 10 minutes and then it was cranking real slow. Cranking slow I thought wa because the battery was low. I had a couple of people try to help me push start it. I have never tried it before on my xs11 so I don't know if this is the best way.

Anyway, I could not get it running. Until I tried opening the throttle all the way, and then two turns of the engine and it fired right up. I am thinking that the hot engine had too much friction to be able to turn to quickly. But only opening the throttle full like I would start a flooded engine got it running. Not sure what made me thought of opening up the throttle to full. Maybe my girl was talking to me.

I then rode for another short ride (about 10 minutes) and turned off the bike for a couple of hours. Came back to it and it fire right up as normal.

Then I took her for about an hour ride because I was enjoying the Florida sun and waving at all ot the other people on bikes. I have not ridden much in Florida but it seems that everyone waves down by me if they are on a Harley or a Honda.

Any thoughts, other than the Florida sun?

[Bob Falter]

thumperjsa

Did you turn off the gas when you shut it off? My guess is that it flooded and some raw gas got into the cylinders washing the oil off the walls. This makes the engine harder to turn over. The way to start a flooded engine is to crank the engine over with the throttle wide open, which you did. Had that happen to me once when I forgot to shut off the gas and I don't have the octopus.

Bob

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Thumper,

Are you sure your petcocks are not leaking? Sounds plausible what Bob said, but your petcocks are vacuum controlled and shouldn't flow until you start turning the engine over.

Secondly, with increased heat you get increased resistance on wires. You may want to disconnect the battery, and then disconnect all of the wires in your starting circuit, solenoid, etc, and clean all of the contacts, could be some corrosion built up inbetween them.

Also, when you're riding, are you cruising at very low rpms, like around 3K? If so, and you're running lights, brakes alot, as well as lots of stop and go traffic, you could be running down the battery a bit.....not getting enough rpm's to maintain charge, and also could be overheating the engine if lots of stop and go!?

Just some other thoughts! T.C.

[thumperjsa]

Thanx for the comments. First, I don't have an Octopus nor fuel shut-offs because I have and 80g. I rebuilt the petcocks because of a fuel leak by the petcock a couple of months ago. The petcocks are not leaking and as far as I can tell, working fine. I know this because I have pulled the tank off several times lately with fuel in it and not getting any gas coming out of the petcocks.

To some of TC's points. My ride was short and through traffic and knowing the charging system of the XS is not great at low RPMs, that makes some of the sense.

The most prevalent issue that has me confused is why the bike started so easily when I fully opened the throttle and not when the throttle was closed. Opening the butterflies like tha should lean out the mixture at first because of all the air allowed in at startup and then provide a lot of fuel once the vacuum of the engine starts to pull it in.

Electricity 101 tells me that a hot bike presumably with hot wires will cause more resistance allowing less voltage through. Could there have been something like that causing less power to get the starter to make it crank slower or friction from the hot parts making the engine not want to crank?

As I mentioned, when my bike sat long enough to cool down after a smiliar short ride, the engine cranked fine and started right up.

Some thoughts I need to ponder. There is a clear blue sky outside and it is calling me to get outdoors. Got to get out before the wife and kids get home and cause me to stay in the rest of the day.