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agreat1

agreat1

Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Messages
681
Location
cumbria
Yet another quirk fiorm my beloved RSV factory

My RSV 04 Factory is struggling to start and sounds awful when trying.
it will take 3 or 4 attempts to start and when failing dies after about 3 secs on starter button.
sounds like its struggling to turn over especially worse when cold
battery is showing 12v - is that too low?

also when turning the engine off it sometimes clunks as the engine stops

i know these descriptions are a bit pap, but its hardto describe only that it sounds awful and worrying it might be damaging the engine

any ideas guys cheers
 
new battery id say mate,these milles take a hell of a lot of juice out of the battery to start em.
its certainly the first thing id try mate,if only to rule it out.
 
Last edited:
My first thought was the same as above. The recommendation is that you keep the bike on an Optimate when it's not in use, to keep the battery at it's best.
 
If you have clunking on switch off and startup you have probably damaged the sprag clutch. Usually from starting the bike with a less than 100% batt.
 
how much is that gonna cost me to replace/fix if i have damaged the sprag clutch
 
agreat1 said:
how much is that gonna cost me to replace/fix if i have damaged the sprag clutch
Click to expand...

There is a fair bit of labour involved. I would guess at about £300

The golden rule with big twins is don't try and start with a less than 100% batt and always turn over in bursts if it won't start.

Your bike looks like an 04 so check you are getting good charge voltage as well as it's a known weak point.
anything less than about late 12's volt wise at idle and you may have an issue. ideally in the 13's
 
spoonz
what is the resolution if it isnt charging the battery properly as mine is an 04 factory
 
i read on hear somewhere that these bikes need a 10 mile run just to replace the charge used to start it !
 
agreat1 said:
spoonz
what is the resolution if it isnt charging the battery properly as mine is an 04 factory
Click to expand...

The low charge output is down to a high resistance in the stator leads running to the rectifier. The high resitance reduces output and if bad enough overheats the connector melting it. Once it melts it often shorts on the engine casing and wrecks the stator.

A genuine stator will blow your socks off when you get the bill. you don't want to go there believe me. The connector is behind the rad expansion tank and is brown with yellow wires. the give away is to monitor the dash voltage as i said before.
when it gets really bad the connector looks like this.

connector.jpg


Leatherface the 2004 on bikes have a different flywheel with super strong magnets which drive the stator much harder than the earlier versions. The result being that the stator will happily churn out late 13 volts even at idle.
.
 
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sorry for my ignorance
where is the rad expansion tank?
i've just bought a new battery, charged it all night on an acumen platinum
when i put it on the bike (fully charged) the dash read 12v
after another clunky start the volrtage is around 13.6v engine running
could it be the acumen not charging to 14v

where is the stator? should i check this? how?

what relays do i check?

i so want to sort this before i go down the sprag replacement route

cheers for all the help
 
spoonz said:
If you have clunking on switch off and startup you have probably damaged the sprag clutch. Usually from starting the bike with a less than 100% batt.
Click to expand...


Spoonz,

Im sure i read somewhere that it's not uncommon for the Mille to make a noise when switching the engine off, did i imagine it ???

Anybody else on here who's bike makes a noise when you turn it off ???
 
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It's not a normal scenario for the engine to knock on shutdown especially from the sprag area.

agreat the batt won't charge to 14v but more like mid 12's. You should see in the 13's engine running because to charge a 12v batt you have to exceed it's output voltage.

If you have 13.6v running then that's pretty healthy and maybe your connectors are ok or already modded. The expansion tank is behind the right fairing panel if you want to check.
 
spot on cheers i'll look tonight

just got back form dealer, he's had it on the axone. put the latest map in it thats applicable to my model bike.

the axone says fault injectors circuit open and is current, will not clear

cant get the front exhaust valve out to get the emmisions sorted so he's doing that on tuesday next week

also going to balance injectors and do shims and timing etc

i have to be bluntly honest - i'm getting sick and tired of the money its costing me to get this bike running properly and if after this service and errors done next week its not right then i'm getting rid off her, as i can't afford all these problems

the problem being i know it stood for a while not run, i now use it for commuting and playing at weekends, i look after all my bikes, cleand f365 and so on to keep protected and looking good, but i dont know how it was looked after previously

i'm just so bothered about breaking the sprag clutch and i just want her sorted and running well, then i can finally enjoy her
 
just spoken to a guy in the know
he's told me to try hydraulic cam tensioner
new plugs
and most importantly is it on engine management 2 after having race pipes fitted
so i know it had a set of akro's on so will be doing all that too

i'll let you know how it is on tuesday eveing......

fingers crossed!!!!!
 
The cam tensioners usually are noisy towards the top end of the motor and get quieter as the engine revs or has run for a while and oil pressure builds. not uncommon for them to be a bit noisy (clackity clack) at startup but not heard of it at shutdown. If you have a sprag problem it will be distinctly left sided on the engine behind the flywheel and consistantly there hot or cold at startup and sometime shutdown. It sounds like putting ice cubes in a blender if you can imagine that.


the engine variant 2 would generally cause surging/stalling and popping while your riding if it were wrong and wouldn't cause the noise but worth checking anyway if their in there.

your injectors can't be permanentally open circuit if the bike is running ok. Open circuit = no injected fuel = no run. It does pose the question of maybe the bike dropping onto 1 cylinder though at times. The rsv often sounds like it has lunched itself when it misfires and can knock audiably which can be felt through the bike when it does. I would question why it would only manifest itself at startup though

a lot of the perceived faults may just be red herrings so keep the faith.
 
apparently when the key is in and turned on the axone will show injectors circuit open error, normal according to southerncross (i called them)
i'm gonna have a good listen to where exactly the noise is coming from tonight
starts better when warm, in fact with no problems, does sometimes stall at lights etc so gonna check engine variant.

plugs could be very dirty after wrong variant as it will of been running to rich so will check and replace as necessary

will check that relay too and the starter under the rear set unit for overheating signs

i hope i get this sorted

cheers spoonz for all your advice - much apreciated
 
ok latest update
the brown connector from rectifier to stator is perfect
the starter motor under rear seat had a lifttle oxidisation on one terminal so cleaned that off.
the battery is 13.5v according to my multimeter, the old one was 12.8v

currently the bike is starting so much better, but what noise is there appears to be coming from behind the magnesium cover on the right hand side of the bike or from within the engine, quite hard to tell as its minimul at present.
still clunks a bit when turning key off and that also appears to be coming from behind the magnesium cover on the right
 

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