Hi all. I have a 2009 Sportster that I'm having trouble starting. I've attempted a few things on my own to try and diagnose... But not really sure where else to go from here.

Background:

2009 Sportster 883 with 1250 mods done early last year. September of last season, it had developed an oil leak from the oil drain tube, the tube cracked up near the oil tank. I had to spray a bunch of engine degreaser and hose it off to even identify the oil leak. The bike sits outside under a cover. I had it on a battery maintainer and most recently ran it back in December. At some point between then and this past weekend, someone had disconnected the maintainer and battery was dead when I went to go check on it. I pulled the battery and had it sit on a charger until it was fully charged.

Problem:

Upon first attempt to start it. I turned the key, everything acted as it normally does..fuel pump turns on, lights and everything work. When I go to press start, all I get is a single loud click sound from what sounds to be the starter motor.

Things I've tried:

- voltmeter tested the battery as it sat there, 12.8-12.9 volts, when key is turned to on, it's at 12.4 volts, when attempting to start, it drops to 11.8 volts. I then put the volt meter positive end to test the connection from the cable from the positive terminal to the starter, and got identical readings..I then put the voltmeter to the connection underneath a rubber boot on the top of the starter and was getting 0 volts...when attempting to start, I'd just get a click and it would only go up to about 1.4 volts.

- pulled the battery and took it to local parts store to load test the battery. They told me the battery reported as a "good battery"

-went back and attempted to clean all the connections and make sure everything was tight. Had a little sand paper with me and cleaned the metal if needed. I did this to the fuses and relays too.i checked the ground off the negative battery and cleaned it.

​​​​-2 relays on the fuse box. The start relay and system relay. They both seem identical. Attempted to diagnose them by swapping them with each other. I know the system relay turns on the fuel pump... So i tried to isolate them and check to see if they both seemed to work as they should. They seemed to.

-spoke with someone who told me that I can get the starter motor to turn by running a piece of wire and jumping the post on the top of the starter from the positive terminal of the battery. Had a friend hold the start button and I then attempted to jump it. Starter motor spun, but just seemed to just spin freely. Like it was spinning, but the teeth weren't engaging or something.

-went back to normal and tried to start again. Only still getting a single click sound.

 

Check your battery cables , the full length , noticed you have some corrosion built up on the fuses ( as stated ) could be corrosion inside the jacket of the cables and possibly a break . Next , I would be looking at your starter , here is a video that will explain what you need to know .

To help with your corrosion issue , I would pick up a can of Electrical Contact Cleaner and clean up all the connections including the fuse box , disconnect your battery before you do this and let it dry before hooking back up .


Hope you get this solved .

 

Thank you. I will check my cables again. I forgot to mention, but I did pull all fuses, cleaned off the contacts and sprayed an electrical cleaner . Not sure how well I got inside the contact points of the fuse box though.

I did see a similar video to test the starter... This has to be done on a bench right? With the starter pulled off the bike. The push and pull test?

If I'm getting such low voltage to the connection on top of the starter... Could it mean something is wrong with the solenoid? Maybe corrosion got in there and it's stuck or something?

 

Do not pull the starter...

Do not buy a starter...

Remove the battery, follow the service manual procedure for this, make sure the negative cable is disconnected first.

You won`t be disconnecting the negative cable at the battery end, but at the other end. Then disconnect positive and remove the battery (with negative cable still connected to it).

Now remove the negative cable from the battery, you may see that it was not tight, this is a common occurrence when the wrong process is used to install the battery, plenty of videos on you tube, but I haven`t seen one that shows the correct method...

Clean the battery posts and cable terminals, install the negative cable to the battery, install the battery while feeding the negative cable to the proper location.

Connect positive cable, then negative cable.

See how that works.