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Intermittent hard starting when warm to hot

dwireman

Member
I am having a problem with my 07 Street Glide. On cold starts, the engine usually fires right up, but after reaching operating temperatures or when on the hot side, I occasionally have a hard time getting the bike to start. The dealer has already replaced the starter, because it sounded like a thrashing machine. I had a PCIII installed and dyno'd by John Golden in Sturgis. Runs great but still having the annoying problem of difficult starts. It is a little better since the dyno, and I have changed plugs, although the ones I took out looked great. I had a buddy of mine richen the start mixture about 11% but don't believe that did much for it either. Help please! The dealership doesn't want to touch it now that I have a PC on it (just another way of saying we don't know how to fix it). Just looking for ideas.
 
Have you had your battery load tested?
When the engine is warm it is tighter and requires more from the starter which in turn needs more amperage from the battery.
If your hard start is slow cranking when warm I would have checked this first,then checked starter draw,then fuel and ignition.
 
I agree with above..look at battery cranking amps..had similar problem in past and all due to low batt..:(
goods luck
 
check battery of course .. and when you say hard starting what kind? slow crank? backfiring ? kicking back ? more info
 
Have you removed the Power Commander when it's hot and having the problem and see if it goes away?
 
I had the same problem with mine ,went through 2 starters . The starters would clunk & grind like the bendix is not fully engaged , a few times the starter even stalled & I would have to release the start button & hit it again , sometime the bike would start fine but all my starting issues were when the engine was warmed up . I just replaced the stock compensator with the SE compensator upgrade kit HD part #40274-80 & it seems that it has eliminated my starting problems , now the bike starts like it should , cold or hot the starter sound the same & no clunking or grinding , now the bike starts like a $25,000 HD should & no more embarassing moments in front of other riders .
 
Thanks to everyone for trying to help me out. I am really frustrated with this. The bike was doing this thrashing, misfiring, trying to start 'backwards', and even having to crank for several seconds to get it to fire before the dealer replaced the starter, and before the PCIII was installed and dyno'd. Today I hooked up the PC to the laptop and retarded my ignition about -2 and richened the fuel mixture a little, didn't do much for it. The battery looks good, has a full charge and only dropped to about 10 volts on the crank, and then right back to nearly 14 with the bike running. I may just go ahead and replace the battery as this one is 28 months old (original). I thought about changing out the fuel filter, but of course, my dealer doesn't have one in stock. I will look into the compensator, that gives me another direction to look. Thanks to all, and if there are any more ideas, I am totally open to hear them all. The (edit) dealer doesn't now squat.


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