wfooshee
O, Woe is me!!
It took some digging, but I found my old Sears engine analyzer. Basically a meter with a bunch of switches to check tach, dwell, volt, and amps. It has a 160-amp scale, so I hooked it up.
Bike is cold, cranked and started perfectly. Pulled negative cable on the battery, pulled positive cable and installed the ammeter shunt on the positive, reinstalled the negative. Turned the bike on, saw a couple of amps positive, meter connection does not need to be reversed.
Hit the starter button, instantly shows 120 amps, I get a couple of turns from the starter, then it lugs and the ammeter pegs. Turn the key off, the ammeter shunt is very hot to the touch. Put the battery cables back to normal, bike fires right up.
It seems my ammeter kit is adding to the circuit, significantly. I think the shunt strip is aluminum. Granted, the kit is designed for measuring alternator output, but with the 160-amp scale and the numbers in Rad's post, I figured it had the guts for this.
Just for funsies I reversed the shunt and used it on the negative side, same result, 120 amps briefly, then the starter lugs and the meter pegs, shunt is very hot to the touch.
My test equipment may not be up to the job, but it indicates to me that I've got a huge draw from the starter, at least twice what it ought to be. I've been in touch with FJRnut from post #58 and he's sending his spare starter to test with. I'm going to wait for it to get here before I tear the fuel system out again, so I haven't done a no-load test on my starter. Stupidly, that never occurred to me while I had it out. :blink:
BTW, voltage drop at the battery is about the same, hot or cold. I see 12.8 or so when I turn the bike on, and into the eights and nines while cranking. Saw 7.9 once, cold. Still have not had the clock reset during any of this.
Bike is cold, cranked and started perfectly. Pulled negative cable on the battery, pulled positive cable and installed the ammeter shunt on the positive, reinstalled the negative. Turned the bike on, saw a couple of amps positive, meter connection does not need to be reversed.
Hit the starter button, instantly shows 120 amps, I get a couple of turns from the starter, then it lugs and the ammeter pegs. Turn the key off, the ammeter shunt is very hot to the touch. Put the battery cables back to normal, bike fires right up.
It seems my ammeter kit is adding to the circuit, significantly. I think the shunt strip is aluminum. Granted, the kit is designed for measuring alternator output, but with the 160-amp scale and the numbers in Rad's post, I figured it had the guts for this.
Just for funsies I reversed the shunt and used it on the negative side, same result, 120 amps briefly, then the starter lugs and the meter pegs, shunt is very hot to the touch.
My test equipment may not be up to the job, but it indicates to me that I've got a huge draw from the starter, at least twice what it ought to be. I've been in touch with FJRnut from post #58 and he's sending his spare starter to test with. I'm going to wait for it to get here before I tear the fuel system out again, so I haven't done a no-load test on my starter. Stupidly, that never occurred to me while I had it out. :blink:
BTW, voltage drop at the battery is about the same, hot or cold. I see 12.8 or so when I turn the bike on, and into the eights and nines while cranking. Saw 7.9 once, cold. Still have not had the clock reset during any of this.
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