My bike started not wanting to start occasionally. Starter would wind down before turning over, but usually fire on the next attempt.

It's a '97 that I bought last year, so having no idea how old the battery was, I replaced it about a week or two ago.

No issues at first, but this morning it refuses to start and makes a clicking sound. Battery is definitely fully charged, but it won't start.

Not sure what to look at next. Any ideas?

Here's audio of what it sounds like:

 

Update: I hooked up my battery tender after that last attempt I recorded. Then after about 20 minutes, I tried starting again for the hell of it, and it fires right up like nothing.

I had measured the voltage before hooking it up and it was about 12.2v. So now I'm really confused.

 

You are not getting enough voltage to the starter. Check all connections include the ground. When bike is cranking voltage at the battery should be no lower than 9.5 volts.

 

Standing voltage of a fully charged AGM battery is 12.85 volts minimum. If you have less than that battery needs to be charged or replaced if battery will not hold charge.

 

Yeah...it sounds strange. But, a fully charged battery under no load should read 12.6 volts or more. 12.2 volts is only 50% charged.

The electrical forum has a couple of stickys on how to diagnose the battery and charging system. Some quick ideas:
: make sure all the connections at battery, starter, and regulator are clean and tight.
: focus on diagnosing the charging system...but it sounds like a bad regulator.

Good luck..

 

Hmm. Okay.

Bike sat for 3 days (not hooked up to tender) before today. Seems like it should hold a charge fine for 3 days, right?

I'll look into checking the regulator.

Battery is brand new. Anything else I can check to see if it's faulty or not?

Thanks for the help.

 

Carefully check that all ground and battery connections are tight including grounds to frame.

 

Hook a volt meter up to your battery then hit the start button.
How much does the volt meter read when you are hitting the start button?

 

Whoa! First thing you do is read and follow the excellent sticky at the top of this EVO forum by Dr Hess called "How to diagnose your charging system"

 

That's a great post. Thanks for pointing it out.

(Newbie error on my part not noticing it first)