Bad Starter?

Hello all,

Its been a while but I'm looking for a little help with a technical issue I had i Sturgis this year. I took my 2005 RIII up last Monday and rode was caught in the rain Tuesday and a little on Wednesday. I started her up on Wednesday night and rode her back to camp. Thursday morning was beautiful so I shined her up and went to press the ignition button and got nothing...nada. I checked fuses...good. Checked the battery connections...good. Made sure the starter relay was correctly seated. I had a volt meter and checked the top of the starter and had 12V. Pressed the ignition and checked the bottom of the starter motor...nada. Tried to Arc the starter motor...nothing except sparks. So I talked to the local Triumph shop and told them what I had done and they said that they thought it was a bad starter motor. A mechanic friend concurred. I found a post where someone had taken a 1.4kw starter from a 99 Toyota something and robbed the plunger from theirs to it...installed, and it worked great. I had no other options being in BFE South Dakota so I hit an O'Reillly's and matched the part number. Did the starter surgery in camp under the light of two lanterns. Installed onto the Rocket and still nothing...dead silence. I also picked up a relay at O'Reilly's and tried that in place of my starter relay...still no luck but Im not sure the pin configuration was correct. So...to me I have three options 1) get a legit starter relay or 2) get a new ignition switch or 3) start trying to test from start to finish. I was wondering if anyone on here had any insight or other suggestions. Any help would be appreciated.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Really sucks when it happens away from home.

When you hit the starter button, do you get a click or sound like the solenoid is trying to engage? If so, you may need to fit a secondary starter relay. This solved my problem. Post if you're getting the click or not. If you are, then I'll locate the thread on the secondary starter relay mod. Easy and takes about a half hour to do.

A friend of mine went to wash his goldwing at a carwash when we were out on a long trip. He called me at the motel; he'd tried everything to get the bike started - nada. We went thru a bunch of scenarios - nada. Check your kill switch, I said - and that's what it was

Now, I'm pretty sure you've checked that but thought I'd mention it anyway, as I know it's helped a number other people in similar situations --

dont them older models have an issue with the ignition wires on the bottom of the barrel letting go. eastern beaver relay kit prevents it

There are few worse feelings than the one you get when you press the starer button and nothing happens. Particularly when far from home. I know, I've been there.

There are a number of things that have been done with varying effects and here are a few of them. Good luck.

More thoughts...

When you hit the starter button, do the headlights go out?

Do you get the instrument sweep when you turn on the ignition?

Ignition barrel solder joints....

blastedbones said:

Ignition barrel solder joints....

Click to expand...

Frikken Achilles heel for our Rockets......

Thanks all for your input. please see below let me know if you think of anything else.

Another thing I thought of is that I did put some cables on my battery and another bike to eliminate the battery being the issue. I know that sometimes they show good and aren't.

@tdragger - Thanks tdragger. Nope. No Click, no sound. I do get sweep on the instrument cluster. I do not get dimming on the headlights. I usually did a little and I assume that I dont know because there is no draw from the starter motor.

@DCRocket - I have checked the kill switch. Even made sure the bike was in neutral to ensure bypass of the kickstand sensor.

@Turbo - My local shop said that during a hard rain sometime you have to open the ignition barrel and let it dry out. i did that and even tried to bypass the ignition button to no avail.

@Jthree - I will check out those threads...thanks.

@Bones - The soldering looks to be good.

admiralrocket said:

I do not get dimming on the headlights.

Click to expand...

That's a good clue right there. The stock starter relay is a five pin type that delivers power to one circuit or the other. In normal state, the starter relay delivers power to the headlights. When you hit the starter button, the relay switches the circuit to feed the starter. If the headlights are not going completely out (ignore the status of the little parking lights) when you hit the starter button, then you have an issue with the starter relay.