lootzyan
Well-Known Member
Like every year, last November I winterized, in my garage, my two motorbikes (one of them is a scooter). As always, I keep the batteries at home throughout the winter and regularly charge them with the YUASA charger. (Smaller, 6Ah battery, refused to be charged in mid-January - after 10 years of use. After 3 days I received a new YUASA battery).
Yesterday the temperature jumped to 75 F so I decided to wake up my bikes from hibernation, as usual every spring. There has never been a problem with this. But this time, for the first time, my CTX ND refused to start. All controls on the display where normal and you could hear the fuel pump pressurize the fuel, but no start - just a starter relay click, nothing more. I checked the battery voltage - 12.1V and it increases, which is normal. I gave the battery a little rest until it reached 12.4V (before the start the voltage was normal 12.65V for a 5-year battery). I tried to start it again with the meter connected to the battery. It did not start but the voltage dropped to 11.9V. Now I knew that the starter relay contacts are good, current flows through the starter motor circuit and the start circuit fuses also are good. No reason to suspect that the starter motor is broken at this point. I could only suspect that the engine puts too much rotational resistance. So it needs some help. It's easy for NCX: engage it into a higher gear (3-rd and up) and push the bike. It's enough for the crankshaft to turn a little. For NCXD, remove the crankshaft hole cap (in the alternator cover) and using a socket wrench turn the crankshaft clockwise about 1/4 turn. That's all. In my case, the engine started without a problem. This can happen again if the bike is left at low temperatures for a relatively long time.
Yesterday the temperature jumped to 75 F so I decided to wake up my bikes from hibernation, as usual every spring. There has never been a problem with this. But this time, for the first time, my CTX ND refused to start. All controls on the display where normal and you could hear the fuel pump pressurize the fuel, but no start - just a starter relay click, nothing more. I checked the battery voltage - 12.1V and it increases, which is normal. I gave the battery a little rest until it reached 12.4V (before the start the voltage was normal 12.65V for a 5-year battery). I tried to start it again with the meter connected to the battery. It did not start but the voltage dropped to 11.9V. Now I knew that the starter relay contacts are good, current flows through the starter motor circuit and the start circuit fuses also are good. No reason to suspect that the starter motor is broken at this point. I could only suspect that the engine puts too much rotational resistance. So it needs some help. It's easy for NCX: engage it into a higher gear (3-rd and up) and push the bike. It's enough for the crankshaft to turn a little. For NCXD, remove the crankshaft hole cap (in the alternator cover) and using a socket wrench turn the crankshaft clockwise about 1/4 turn. That's all. In my case, the engine started without a problem. This can happen again if the bike is left at low temperatures for a relatively long time.