Bmw R65 1981 Starter problems

[montmil]

Perhaps consider the very economical Bosch starter rebuild kit from EME / Euro Motoelectrics. $12.00USD

 http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/Starter-Tune-up-Kit-BMW-MG-BO157-TK-p/bo157-tk.htm

[NorR65]

Good morning!
The sun is shining and it is 18 degrees Celsius. Perfect.
The R65 started at first push on starter button. Starter sounds so healthy. I used an old mc-battery. My 2 years old Exide battery was not so healthy that believed. Its dead. Now I need a new battery. The moral of this story, do not over complicate problems, try the easiest solutions before tearing the bike apart. Thanks for your help.

[Bob_Roller]

Good to hear that you got it sorted out with relatively minimal effort and expense .

Like I mentioned before, I'm a firm believer of having a battery tender connected to the battery all of the time .

All it takes is one or two good discharge cycles on the battery to ruin it .

Especially during the winter off season when you tend to forget about it .

Keeping your battery in a garage without heat and connected to a battery tender, is the best thing you can do for it during the winter .

Hopefully you get a battery quickly and get the bike back out on the road .

It's 0700, 86 F. (30 C.), I think it's going to be hot today !!!!

[tvrla]

I recall one electrical thread that went on for pages and pages and pages trying to decide what was wrong. Around and around checking this, that, and everything else. Turned out to be the battery - and the joke from then on was "It's always the battery", even when the problem was completely disrelated, like poor shifting.  

But it is true - a borderline battery can appear good, yet cause all sorts of weird problems logic can't unravel.

[Bob_Roller]

That's what's good about having two bikes, you can quickly swap parts between them and confirm if the part is the problem or not .

I run into this at work quite often, a problem is troubleshot to 'death' and no solution can be found .

You need to step back from the 'situation' and go through the steps that were taken, usually the problem gets over complicated in the troubleshooting process .

While I was attending aircraft mechanics school in the early '70's, I had an instructor that brought this theory up and I use it all the time .

Occam's Razor, simply put, all things being equal, the solution with the fewest assumptions is the most correct .


It has rarely led me down the wrong path in 36 years of working on aircraft and motorcycles.