I have heard some folks with 07 and 08 ultras have had issues with the starter
failing. That would mean that you might get stranded somewhere, hopefully not far from home.

I was wondering if the starter starts to fail gradualy and gives you signs so you can repair
and avoid towing the bike. When the starter is close to failing does it beging to show signs of a problem every time you start the bike or does it do a one time hard failure?

I suspect it can fail either way but I am asking in the majority of the cases.

 

I have an 08 RK, but I also had a bad starter. It was occasionally slow to turn over for a while, then it made a screeching sound but wouldn't start on the first try a couple of times. Then it completely failed.

 

Starter or ring gear? The ring gear's chip teeth when the starter doesn't engage. I think a better fix might be to remove the wimpy 300?? cca battery and replace it with something like a Big Boar 750 or 1000 cca battery. Doing so would keep the starter engaged and prevent the starter from kicking out for lack of amps.

 

Good idea.
Or, at least keep the battery on a tender when not used every day.

 

Could be either.

It may fail suddenly or it may get crazy a thousand times before it gives up the ghost.

First one you can't do anything about.

Second one means pull it, check it and fix it before it completely dies.