Before you rush in, what is the standing volts on the new battery? ideally close to 12.7 is full charge,12. 5 is half charged approx, if low charge it,
did you check the charge volts on the new battery 14v +.? the alternator or belt may be at fault if not ,
assuming a full charge what does it drop to on cranking, if it pulls down to around 10v its drawing a significant current at the starter, if it doesn't it may be poor connections, or as bendy suggests starter brushes,
You can measure the cables without dismantling using a volt meter ,from say battery earth post to engine casing, same on positive to starter stud,
max reading should be 0.5, {half a volt} max, with the starter pressed as the circuit must be under load, higher is a bad connection, corroded or loose ,
these basic tests will avoid the parts bingo guessing game ,
worth a try when you are warmed up and have 10 minutes to use the voltmeter,
Take this with you as the order of testing is as written, stop at any point you don't get what is expected and you will find the issue and know all is ok at the end,
Roamer,
My starter or the battery seems to be completely fecked just now. I got recovered home yesterday after stopping briefly to fit ear plugs. Starter was too slow to start the engine. My case history:
1. Sluggish starting, esp when hot, so stripped the starter and fitted new brushes about 5-6 weeks ago. Happy days all seemed good.
2. Sluggish starting reappeared about 10 days ago culminating in yesterdays failure. Starter was very very hot after trying to restart it for a few minutes.
3. Tried a jump start from a car. Still no difference on the starter, but the jump leads I have are a bit thin and with big chunky clamps getting it on the battery wasn't easy.
4. Battery on charge - optimate shows all good after overnight charge.
5. Dismantled starter, apart from grease leaking from the gears onto the armature(??? - the big shiny bit that is next to the magnets) all was good. New brushes looked OK still and the armature (??? the bit the brushes run on) had a light coat of carbon dust so cleaned it all up. Gearbox span easily with it dismantled and it all went back together again just fine. Still very sluggish though.
6. Tank off (first time, what a faff) and cleaned the main earth. There's a lot of corrosion around the top of my engine. Not good. Every connector and earth between battery and starter cleaned and roughed up with W&D.
7. Hooked the bike direct to the car battery (no bike battery) with jump leads to try and rule in/out the battery but just as slow, so suggests starter motor. However not 100% sure the jump leads were making the best of contact to the bike battery tenders.
8. Did the tests outlined above:
Battery with no load about 12.4volts (a bit under that so hints at the battery is poor). Immediately I take it off the charger it has 13+ volts but seems to drop to 12.4 fairly quickly.
Battery under starter load drops to 6volts (so strong hint that battery is fecked. BUT see point 7 above).
Voltage drop on the cables is less than 0.5volts on earth and +'ve.
9. I can just about turn the engine over in 6th gear plugs in with a lot of effort. It makes some horrible whizzing noises. I have used this technique before when changing the alternator belt and it feels about the same so I don't think anything untoward is going on in the engine and it has been running fine until now.
If I hadn't tried it with the jump leads I would be convinced its the battery. I am going to order a battery anyway (Motobatt MBTX9U - £44.99 from M&P) as the one on the bike is 3 years and 55,000 miles old. If that doesn't do it then I hope I can find somewhere that will test and rebuild the starter. After that I am stuck.
Any other thoughts anyone.
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