Has anyone else had a starter fail on outlaw 525?

[ojcool]

Just wondering. Mine just decided one day to just click waaaaaa you know the sound it makes when the starter is straining but not turning. At first I thought it was the battery, but after overnight trickle charge and showing 100% charged, still does it. Every once in awhile it will turn a couple times but wont start. And the starter gets really hot. I just want to be sure that the starter is bad, I have bypassed the solenoid and it does the same thing. This damn starter is $250. This bike has less than 6 hours on it. Anyone know any way to test one for sure? Can some place like Autozone do a motorcycle starter?

[Chris525]

thats pretty new, warranty it
cost $0

[SSJEFF]

I would try push starting it to make sure the engine will turn over.

[Evasiveone]

If the starter is getting really hot it sounds like it could be low amperage to the starter. You could have a dead cell in your battery.

Edit: If it does end up being your starter you can get 1 here for $190.
525 starter (http://www.cheapcycleparts.com/pages/parts/viewbybrand/14/Polaris.aspx)

[ojcool]

I'm pretty convinced the starter failed. I have tried to start it off the 60amp start function on my charger, and tried to jump it off a car battery. Power seems to have not affect, the headlights burn bright even with just he battery powering them.

See this bike has had a few problems with a short in the wiring causing it to turn off, and the pilot circuit not having the o-ring properly installed so I could never get the jetting right and it stalled constantly, so the starter got alot of use. And I did notice that slowly over time it seemed like the starter was getting weaker and weaker.

Now it just dosent seem to have the power to crank the high compression engine. You can hear it hum and strain to try to crank, and every once in awhile it will turn a couple times but then it stops and starts straining again.

I was told I could have fried the whole CDI system by jumping it off a car battery, I hope that is not the case. I suppose if that is fried I would get an aftermarket CDI.

Does anyone know if there is anything else as far as engine management that could have been damaged by too much amperage? I don't understand exactly why giving it more amperage at the same voltage would damage anything, I could see if you were pushing more voltage into it.

I went ahead and ordered a starter form the site you posted. Thank you that is significantly cheaper.

[Evasiveone]

Originally posted by ojcool


..... I don't understand exactly why giving it more amperage at the same voltage would damage anything, I could see if you were pushing more voltage into it.


I agreee, I do not think you have anything to worry about. I think that is one of those urban legends more than anything.

[Chris525]

If the system is fried I dont think its from the jump start , because there both 12 volt system
and the charger high amp jump start is made for that car as well
so being both the same I dont think this caused it

[ojcool]

Yeah, my experience with electricity is pretty good I worked for a Generator rental company and we did all kinds of electrical setups for concerts, buildings, temporary power. At all different voltages 3 phase, 2 phase, single phase ect. There was a decent amount of math involved too. And having access to more amperage could feasibly cause wiring to fail due to it's sizing being matched to the normal amp demands, however if the starter is for example 50 amps at 12v and it has access to 60 amps at 12v it still is only going to use 50 amps. It's just like oversizing a generator, you can put a massive generator to power something, and size the wire to the amperage demand, no matter how many amps the generator is capable of producing, the demand stays static. It will not just Blast a ton of amperage into the wiring just because it can, there has to be a demand ASKING for that amperage.

Voltage would be completely different. But everything I have done is at 12 volts.

[ojcool]

Yeah, I put the starter on yesterday and I confirmed what I believed. No problems whatsoever with frying anything. Bike started and ran fine.


Starter was bad though. $190 damn. To any of you who are having problems with you bike starting.... Don't crank it excessively. Just give up and figure out what is really wrong with it. This is a high compression engine and it's hard on starters.

[FiveTwentyFive]

Cool,

Plus that starter is somewhat small.

5 second crank time. Max!

Congrats! :)