Slow Cranking

[worldbound4now]

SO...... I walked out of work today, went to start up my trusty steed, and was greeted with empty, slow rotation cranking. F)&*^)*&^. Not even a hint that she was going to start. I was in a parking garage, temp around 40 degrees, battery one year old, shouldn't be a problem... I have noticed that my FJR has needed a few more revs on starting, progressive over the past few months. I pushed the bike into direct sunlight, called my wife, and let it sit for about 2 hours. On my return, the bike started. Barely.

In looking at my maintenance records, I see the last time I changed spark plugs was about 17,000 miles ago. Wow. This is a huge oversight for me. I ordered new iridium plugs and anticipate their arrival soon. When they arrive, I'll change oil to a lighter weight and install the new plugs. Hopefully my winter start woes won't continue.

Simple maintenance neglect. Learn from my mistakes folks!

(Sorry for the fragmented speech. The cheap wine has taken effect.)

(Thank you admin for moving this to a new topic thread. I started with good intention to stay on the spark plug purchase topic, but became distracted)

 

[TriggerT]

Interesting. I have put over 25K miles on a set of iridium plugs, and when I took them out they still looked pretty good.

 

[bramfrank]

'slow rotation cranking' is NOT going to be your spark plugs. You either have a loose connection, a bad starter relay, a bad starter motor or your battery has decided to give up the ghost.

 

[worldbound4now]

@Bramfrank - Nah, the slow rotation was a relative statement when compared to warmer weather. I always notice a dip in the starting rotation when the weather is cold, assumed to be a direct relation with the increased oil viscosity as the temperature drops. I also notice the Datel drop a little lower when cranking the engine over during cold weather, demonstrating increased draw on the battery reserve. I've considered the thought that my starter is showing signs of wear or that my <12 month old Westco battery is already weakening, and may have to succumb myself to the tedious process of swapping out starters some time in the not to distant future.

@TriggerT - Spark plugs can look great but be absolute crap. I'm not denying that there may be other issues and do thank you for your suggestions, but I had fuel, rotation for compression (it doesn't take much), and air. The only missing foundational link was a good strong source of ignition. The spark plug appearance is not the only variable in their ability to efficiently generate an adequate spark. Every time the plug fires, the tiny electrode surface is diminished in quality. I'm not the best at recalling the degradation process, but if you really want to know I'm sure others on the forum can explain it or correct me (Calling ionbeam).

My FJR has never failed to start if it was able to crank. Sure, some 25ish degree mornings were a bit of an *** pain where I crossed fingers and prayed, but this is the first no vroom situation. I failed to elaborate more that it was cranking over at what was an adequate rate for previous starts, and after a couple of failed attempts I could smell unspent fuel while seated on the bike telling me I had probably flooded the beast with fuel and no sparky sparky to ignite it. Now, my battery may be loosing its cold cranking abilities, but in my desperation I made approximately 8-10 failed attempts to start the bike within 30 minutes time, wearing the battery reserve but not depleting it. I do feel that removing the bike from the cold parking garage and sitting it in the direct sunlight for a couple of hours to warm it the few degrees and allow the flooded combustion chambers to clear contributed to the successful start on my return.