G'day All,
This is a bit of a long story, but here goes.
As you can see by the thread title, I have a 1999 Dyna Convertible, so it's 16 years old, & last June we went for ride to Lightning Ridge, here in Australia.
All was good, until we got to a place called Burren Junction, very isolated, only a pub & a shop, so we had a drink, & a chat, there was 150 people on this ride for charity.
When we saddled up, all ready to go, hit the starter button, all I got was a click. Shit, this had never happened before. No way was it gunna start, so the guys gave us a push & away we went. Got to the Ridge, had a chat with a mate, we thought the battery had died, it was 6 years old, so gave it a charge. Next morning, it started easily, phew that was a relief, fueled up, & away we went, on our way home.
Had to stop, about an hour down the road, call of nature thing, I foolishly stopped the engine, because I thought the battery was OK.
Hit the starter button, CLICK, SHITTTT, luckily a couple of guys came along & we got going again. Had to stop for fuel, 21/2 hours down the road, but I made sure the bike was on a slope so I could clutch start it, if needed, it fired up easily, made it home, no problem. MMMMM.
Tested battery, I thought it was too old, so bought a new one, no problems since, that was the end of June 2014.
Fast forward to last Friday, the 2015 National HOG Rally, rode into the rally site, with the wife, no problems, got home safe.
Saturday, I went into the Rally, stayed a few hours, when I was ready to leave, CLICK, F*$%, but I was on a hill so easily got going. When we got home, the battery was the first check, charged it, bike started easily. MMMMMM
Yesterday at the Thunder Run, we had ridden about 120 Km's, with 2300 other Harleys, so the battery had to be charged, got back to the Rally site, stopped for fuel, when we were ready to go for lunch, CLICK, F%#K.
Clutch start again, went straight home. I had the shits by this time, & thought it must be something simple, to be this intermittent, so this morning, did a few checks, start relay, OK, battery OK, then on to the solenoid, took the cover off, pulled out the actuator, & there it was, the copper disk, & the contacts that connect, to drive the starter motor, were badly pitted, which caused a bad electrical contact.
Cleaned with fine emery paper & polished contacts with 360 grit wet & dry, put it back together, & away she went.

So if you just get a CLICK, and it's a well used or older bike, check your solenoid contacts, because they do wear out over time.

An update to this story, I thought I had fixed the problem, BUT, not so easy. It was time for the 32,000Km service, had all the oils & filters needed for the service, jumped on the bike, CLICK, SH*%$#T, there were some other words spoken, so, took the solenoid cover off, & tried to push it in with my finger, the solenoid was very hard to push, but moved in, eventually. I thought MMM, maybe it's a mechanical issue, anyway got the engine running went for a short ride to warm it up, came home & drained the engine oil, & replaced the filter, then the transmission oil, refilled it. then the Primary chain oil, & while that was empty, took the primary cover off, removed the jack shaft sprocket, the seat, battery, & battery case, the back exhaust pipe, & removed the starter motor. There was the problem, the short splined adaptor, was dry, & very stiff, that's what was making the solenoid difficult to push in manually. Cleaned it, & lubricated the spline with copperkote, that's a grease & garphite mixture. Put it all back together, & NOW, it starts every time.

Sorry I waffled on for so long, but intermittent problems are the hardest to find.

The Adaptor, is the part, top right of this picture, it has a spline through the middle, with a circlip inside, the spline was the dry bit. Once lubricated, all is well, I HOPE.

Cheers Al.

nice one crossy i have a random starting issue like this on my 92 fxr cheers will prompt me to have a look

 

Thanks Al,

Currently having the same problems on my 2006 Dyna hopefully your thread saves me a shit load of time trying to resolve the issue. You gotta love Harleys, why waste your money on something that is going to start everytime or have nothing fall off?

Chiili