My 2010 RT is not well...

[BigGuy66]

... and I don't know what happened. I was working on Saturday to get the garage ready to park my truck during the winter. My Spyder and our Bunkhouse was in there, left from our recent trip to Arkansas. So I hooked the camper to the Spyder and prepared to take both to storage. Started the Spyder and it ran a little rough and then smoothed out. It hadn't been started for about 3 weeks. There were no warning lights, of any kind. Everything looked normal on the dash. I let it idle and warm up and then headed to the gas station to top off the tank. I had put about 5 ounces of Seafoam in the tank before I left for the station. Got to the station, turned off the Spyder, filled the tank, turned on the key, all electrical cycled as normal... then I hit the starter and it made a "whumpff" sound and stopped immediately. Everything blank... Dead... I pulled out my portable power pack, hooked it up, and turned on the key. It cycled as normal, and when I hit the starter - nothing... no turning over, no whirring, no sound, and and the electrical went dead. Tried two more times and gave up. Got a friend with a trailer and we took both to storage. And there it sits... Seems like the engine seized up... and I will take it to the dealer in the spring... unless someone here has a solution.
Jim

 

[JayBros]

How old is your battery? Your Spyder's charging system doesn't have a lot of oomph compared to the alternator equipped triples. You said it had sat unused for three weeks since your trip. A short trip to the gas station wouldn't provide much charge to the battery. You might have a loose ground somewhere. How was the oil level at the end of your trip? How was the charge on your power pack? Were I in your shoes, I wouldn't lay up a dead Spyder and wait 'til spring to find the source of the problem; I'd want to know it was in A1 working order before the lay up. YMMV.

 

[cptjam]

Hmmmm

SpyderAnn had a similar experience. On her 2020, the starter welded itself! At a gas station in a rough neighborhood, heading for an event. There was nothing we could do. Found RTS in Zulu, IN. They promptly sent a truck and trailer. Working past closing, they found the problem, took a starter off a brand new bike on the showroom floor, and fixed it! Remove your starter, see if it turns. If it is frozen, replace it. If it works(most auto parts stores can test it) you have other problems. Winter is a great time to let it sit at the dealer! Good luck!! Joe

 

[Chupaca]

Bummer....

There were starter motors that had the magnetic fields come loose..:dontknow: but you should start with the battery connections at the battery. The ground straps and get the battery charged and tested. Then give her a shot if still nothing :agree: if you can pull the starter yourself check it.. next get it to a shop and have it fixed before storing it...:thumbup:

 

[Peter Aawen]

I'm with the dead battery school of thought here, possibly made worse by poor connections or loose terminals, but I reckon you'd be waaay better off just to try tightening all the terminals/connections & then jump starting it now before doing anything else!! If it starts OK after being connected to a car/truck running a known GOOD battery for 5 mins or so before even trying to jump start it, then that's very likely ALL that your problem was & you should be able to store it safely in the knowledge that fitting a new battery with clean & tight terminals before doing anything else come spring should have you back on the road & running fine! :thumbup:

It's only if it won't start from a known good battery that you even need to consider anything else; but seriously, 3 weeks of standing around draining an old battery & then hitting it with the really battery draining effort of a cold start that basically requires 20-30 minutes of solid hi-rev running just to get your battery charged up back to where you were before you tried the start in the first place, let alone then running it the 50-60 plus minutes of solid running necessary to even begin to look like charging up a slightly low battery... I can't remember exactly, but I vaguely recall that you've gotta run at revs over about 4,000rpm to put ANYTHING back in your battery from the magneto!! And it takes about 30mins of 4k plus rpm running to put back into the battery what just one start attempt takes out of it!! A good battery can handle a few starts within less time/running before getting too low to do the job, but you started with a 'less than good' battery in the first place, and then you just kept on sucking all the juice out of it!! So if you didn't run it like that for over an hour then it almost certainly left the battery so flat that you were lucky to get ANY response at all when you tried to start it the second time, after gassing it up!! :shocked:

These magneto charging engines really aren't going to be returning much (if any) juice to the battery at idle; so effectively, after draining it by the 3 week stand, you then sucked the battery of most of it's little remaining juice by starting it the first time, continued to suck even more juice out of it by idling it, probably sucked even more out of it by gently running it at revs too low for effective charging on your way to gas up, and then you had the effrontery to expect it to start on a virtually completely dead battery!! No wonder it didn't work!! :dontknow:

Try a jump start before worrying too much about it being anything else! :thumbup:

 

[Eviltwin]

I'm with everyone else, I'd go with a good charge to the battery as well as checking the connections on it. Those power packs that have the built in battery may or may not have enough current to turn over the engine. They mostly rely on you letting them sit hooked up for a few minutes so that they can charge the primary battery before you try and start.

You don't say how old the battery is and what type of life it's led. If it has not been on a maintainer and its pretty old, then it might be due. And I wouldn't let the bike sit like that over winter without doing some preventative work like putting some gas stabilizer in the tank to treat the ethanol and maybe jacking it up to get the tires off the ground so they don't flat spot from sitting so long.

 

[jaherbst]

Fix it now. Don't let this grind on you all winter. Give the battery a full and complete charge. If it is the original battery it has lived longer than most. 3-4

years is pushing it especially when it sits for long periods. If this does not work, I'm with Joe. The starter may have arced and seized.

Jack

 

[KX5062]

Also, with a dead battery, a dead cell within the battery itself can suck all of the power from the jumper into it and not allow that electrical energy to continue on to the starter motor. Any decent auto parts store can load test the battery for free. Load testing is the only sure way to tell if the battery is kaput. Having 12v on a test is almost meaningless without a load test. If you have your own meter you can load test it yourself.

 

[timeless]

THAT IS

exactly what happened to me with my 2010RTSE5 and the battery was only 13 months old.

Also, with a dead battery, a dead cell within the battery itself can suck all of the power from the jumper into it and not allow that electrical energy to continue on to the starter motor. Any decent auto parts store can load test the battery for free. Load testing is the only sure way to tell if the battery is kaput. Having 12v on a test is almost meaningless without a load test. If you have your own meter you can load test it yourself.

 

[dpetrick]

My 2009 RS did the same thing. Just went dead. Called AMA and they sent a flatbed, they tried jumping it, but no go. They loaded it and got it home and hooked up a charger overnight, still not go. Loaded it up and took to the dealer. They replaced the battery and all was fine. Don't know how old the battery was, as I bought it used.

 

[BigGuy66]

Thanks for all the great advice and leads...

...and I will first replace the battery. It was in the bike when I got it and I don't know how old it is. I had it checked at my parts store before heading to Arkansas and he said it was good - but it wasn't under load I don't think. That advice about the starter seizing may be just what happened the way the bike sounded. So... new battery install and if that's not it, I'll haul it to the dealer - RT Sales in Zulu, IN is our go to guy - it's where I bought the bike. That endorsement by cptjam about RT Sales reinforces my confidence in them. I have had good service. And I would fret about it over the winter. Thanks everyone.
Jim

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Something no one has mentioned. The battery does not have to be totally shot to not start the Spyder. The electronics on the bike will shut down completely if the voltage drops below 10.5. If the voltage is above that the cluster will go through the boot up and everything will light up but then you hit the start button. If the battery lacks oomph the voltage will immediately drop below 10.5 and bingo!, it all shuts down. Things with the Spyder aren't like they were in the old days before all the fancy electronics when the starter would make some noise even if the battery voltage was way low.

You can take battery that won't start a Spyder and hook it up to your Honda 350 and it'll probably start with hardly a cough!