davidmarstonne261ta
New member
Hi all, I'm new around here but have been browsing for quite some time so I hope you don't mind me jumping in and asking for a little insight on an issue I'm having with getting my Airhead started.
First, a little background. The bike has sat for about a year and never has had an issue starting apart from the battery being flat. I connected a jump starter to it and had it running but everytime I disconnected it it cut out. So I tried this a few times and kept it running with the jump starter attached for more than few minutes reving a little here and there to see if it would not cut out.
The bike is a custom build and has been made into a bobber, so it has a somewhat unusual layout. For example, to change the battery I have to take one of the exhausts off as it sits in a space inbetween both exhausts. Its unusual, but not an issue as long as the battery doesn't need changing.
Because it has sat for a while (House renovations got in the way of ridining for a while) I needed to change the battery and therefore remove the left exhaust. Once the battery was changed and the exhaust all fitted back together the bike had power, everything lit up. All lights and horn worked, but the bike wouldn't start.
I changed the spark plugs and still no start. So I checked to see if I had spark with the brand new plugs both grounded to the fins and neither side was sparking. The bike runs a dynatek green, dual coil. So with this in mind and spark not going to either plug I changed the coil for the same model but still had no spark.
I noticed that the starter button was working but not springing back, so I wondered if the fault could lie there, but I've just changed this and I still don't have spark. There's never been a kill switch on the bike so that can't be the issue
The bike has an electronic starting kit by Enduralast and that's the last thing on my list to replace (and probably the most expensive) however, I know very little about mechanics and electronics so I'm just muddling through and quite enjoying it apart from the frustrations of failure! The engine is spinning on start but not sparking, does this mean that with what has been replaced, that the electronic ignition is working? (I'm not sure if the initial spin is from the ignition system or not, please forgive my ignorance) or is it probably fried and I need to replace parts of it or is there anything else I should be looking for? As I say the bike was faultless before taking the exhaust off and I've checked all grounding and loose wires etc.
A link to view current starting situation can be viewed: https://we.tl/t-s1pDzLzgeq
Thanks for yoru help on this and sorry for the long first post
David
First, a little background. The bike has sat for about a year and never has had an issue starting apart from the battery being flat. I connected a jump starter to it and had it running but everytime I disconnected it it cut out. So I tried this a few times and kept it running with the jump starter attached for more than few minutes reving a little here and there to see if it would not cut out.
The bike is a custom build and has been made into a bobber, so it has a somewhat unusual layout. For example, to change the battery I have to take one of the exhausts off as it sits in a space inbetween both exhausts. Its unusual, but not an issue as long as the battery doesn't need changing.
Because it has sat for a while (House renovations got in the way of ridining for a while) I needed to change the battery and therefore remove the left exhaust. Once the battery was changed and the exhaust all fitted back together the bike had power, everything lit up. All lights and horn worked, but the bike wouldn't start.
I changed the spark plugs and still no start. So I checked to see if I had spark with the brand new plugs both grounded to the fins and neither side was sparking. The bike runs a dynatek green, dual coil. So with this in mind and spark not going to either plug I changed the coil for the same model but still had no spark.
I noticed that the starter button was working but not springing back, so I wondered if the fault could lie there, but I've just changed this and I still don't have spark. There's never been a kill switch on the bike so that can't be the issue
The bike has an electronic starting kit by Enduralast and that's the last thing on my list to replace (and probably the most expensive) however, I know very little about mechanics and electronics so I'm just muddling through and quite enjoying it apart from the frustrations of failure! The engine is spinning on start but not sparking, does this mean that with what has been replaced, that the electronic ignition is working? (I'm not sure if the initial spin is from the ignition system or not, please forgive my ignorance) or is it probably fried and I need to replace parts of it or is there anything else I should be looking for? As I say the bike was faultless before taking the exhaust off and I've checked all grounding and loose wires etc.
A link to view current starting situation can be viewed: https://we.tl/t-s1pDzLzgeq
Thanks for yoru help on this and sorry for the long first post
David
