Hey guys, Got a bit of a weird thing going on with my 675 (Street Triple R, '08 - one of the very first!), but i'll try and explain as clearly as possible and i'd be very grateful for any thoughts/insight/wisdom! Increasingly, when i go to start the bike, it will not crank and fire into life. Here's what happens put key in ignition and turn it on the fuel pump whirrs, the clocks light up and the tacho does its sweep, headlights come on - basically everything is normal at this point (wait for all of this to finish) press starter nothing at all happens ( ) nada. bugger all. Eventually, if you turn the bike on and off enough (sometimes up to 10 times!), it will decide it wants to crank when you hit the starter. This is obviously pretty scary when you are in the middle of wales with no phone signal ... other times it just fires into life first time, perfectly, without any bother at all. there is no correlation between hot/cold starts, ambient temperature, anything... Stuff I have checked: Clutch switch works fine Side stand switch works fine Rec/Reg is functioning perfectly (the bike was not one of the affected VIN, so didn't need to have the recall done) Battery is only 6 months old, and is fully charged (13.4v before starting, 14.4v when the bike is running) and healthy Kill switch works fine (cleaned all the points up etc) Starter switch works fine (ditto the above) Battery terminals are secure and clean Earth point is clean, secure and not corroded (the bike has a good earth on anything i can connect a multi-meter to) Checked as many connectors as I can, they are all clean and un-corroded There's 12.2v across the starter motor relay before hitting the starter (which i think is expected, being a 12v motor) I have one suspicion though which I only noticed today: When the bike is doing its pre-flight checks after you turn the ignition on, you can hear that 'fax machine' noise (I don't know any other way to describe it) coming from the throttle body area at the back of the air box. I think this is the noise of a stepper motor. This motor continues (sometimes) making noises in a "dub... dub-dub... dub...dub.........dub-dub-dub.....dub...." fashion, and I think the bike will only fire up after this motor has done its job finding some particular setting for whatever it is adjusting. It's like it is hunting around for a specific setting for ages and ages before it will tell the bike that it is allowed to start. Sometimes this noise does not carry on for very long, which may be when the bike does start 'normally'. Does anyone know if this motor needs to complete its work before the bike will allow itself to start? The bike has done 17k miles, it had its 6k service at a dealer (for free, the only reason why they did it), i did the 12k service myself (i'm not afraid of these things!) and is obviously due its 18k service pretty soon. One thing I didn't do at the 12k service was balance the throttle bodies or reset the throttle position sensor. Could this be related? Sorry for the long post, but i'm clutching at straws Thanks for any help!
Ignition switch maybe? If it's worn in the bottom it may not be making the starter solenoid part of the connection. Tps reset and balance shouldn't effect starting, if it's out it may run poorly but won't stop it from cranking. Does the key have a load of movement in it when it's in the run position? Kawasaki used to have this prob many years ago!
Love the fax machine description for the idle stepper btw. I would have said it was more like an old style dial up modem
Here is a recording of the noise: http://rsty.org/dubdub.mp3 you can hear the usual noises then for the remaining 25 seconds, this sort of "dub ... dub ... dub" noise!
If you do check the idle stepper motor, just watch and see if it's moving the bit it's suppose to and not stuck as it'll affect the idle obviously.
That doesn't sound right, as StephenP said it may be stuck. If so that may stop it cranking as it can't find it's range if you know what I mean.
Check the resistance reading coming from the crank. It should be 200ohms for the 675 I believe. Had problems with mine starting and it was the crank sensor in the end knackered
Mine used to make that noise so I'd say not that. As jack says check the crank sensor. Also have you fitted a new clutch lever this is a very common prob if you have. I know you say the clutch switch is working but sometimes the new lever doesn't operate the switch enough try adjusting the cable slightly or really pull the clutch lever in as much as u can
Possibly your starter relay underneath your seat? That's what mine was, cost me £20 on eBay, worked fine since then or another issue I've had with that is the tilt sensor? Battery not sending enough voltage? Etc
Thanks dude, good to know that won't be the issue. Makes sense. I'll check the ignition switch (no movement btw, it's in good order) but there's definitely voltage at the starter relay I had wondered if it may be the CPS. Thanks, I will check. Did yours crank when you had a problem with your CPS? There are zero problems once the bike is actually running, which does make me think the CPS is fine, tho? I have fitted a new clutch lever! I wonder if this started happening around the same time.... I wish I could remember (it was about a year ago?). I tested the lever by hooking up a multimeter which emits a noise when a circuit is closed, I only need to pull the clutch lever to about 3/4 for it to register, and I do always pull it right to the bar. Nevertheless I'll check again. Yeah, quite possibly. Did yours do exactly the same as mine is doing? Press starter and nada, but will sometimes work? Thanks guys, plenty of things to go and check/re-check.
Mine did everything you did but it wouldn't start at all until I had a play with all the connections, worked fine after that, but then my reg/Rec went
Interesting. Cheers Will definitely be checking it regardless. Should it just read 200Ω at all times, or...?
My Daytona had a similar problem after I'd fitted a new clutch cable and hadn't adjusted it properly. Your clutch switch my be working correctly but I'm assuming that if the clutch isn't adjusted correctly the bike won't start coz it thinks the clutch isn't disengaged enough. Worth a try.
Solved this in the end. Turns out it was the starter relay which was faulty Thanks for all the help and pointers! Thankfully something simple in the end
