My big Dog is new, but my Harley is an 05' and it had the same problem at the begining of last summer. About 30-40% of the time it's click-click.
No, I haven't fixed it yet.
But I did clean the solenoid contacts, with little improvement. So its the season for riding and I don't want to get that serious with my bike, I've got my wife's intake manifold to replace. Yep, its plastic. First one I've seen.
My short term solution was to go old school. No, not a kick starter! I got replacement cover for the solenoid with a plunger. A very common accessory. They call it a remote starter switch, but it’s actually the opposite. It's as close to the starter as you can get. I'd put one right now on my Big Dog, but I'm not sure it would fit with the wiring that's in front of it. There's nothing better that the feeling you get when your bike won't start and you lean over press this button and she roars to life. All bikes should come with this.
I've been thinking about this ever since. I do a bit of traveling for my job, so the bike often comes up close to last against the house, cars, boat, kids, etc. The wife is on the list somewhere, I'm not saying where, but I did say the bike was close to last. I digress, to me, the list is like this:
Solenoid contacts - Clean or replace
Plunger lubrication - doesn't sound like much, but you know it’s a factor.
Starter relay - easy replace
Starter button - not so easy replace
Battery - Ah yes, the elusive battery, fortunately, easy to replace. Have you every seen a battery that shows good voltage, but won't deliver current worth a damn. Well I have. Almost a paradox.
Connection points - that's every connection in the circuit guys and gals, mostly on the high current side of things. Ohms law tells you that the higher the current in a circuit, the more significant finite resistances become. That's both side of the circuit +12 Vdc and the GROUND side (often forgotten is the frame connection).
Solenoid coils - there's two, a pull-in coil and a hold coil. I'm no expert on the dynamics here, but I'd say a failure in only one could be misleading.
Starter - If you press the button and you get a click with a big voltage drop (sound familiar), chances are the starter is drawing current, just not turning. Great, get a case of beer and remove the starter. That’s a whole exercise itself. Brushes, winding, bearing, the list goes on. It’s going to take a while.
Compression release - Yeah, if it failed and you didn’t notice, your starter has been working a Hell of a lot harder. I'm new to compression release by buying a Big Dog. I love it, but haven't seen all the problems that can surround it.
All this being said, yep, I'm no expert. Yes I'll fix mine, but if the symtoms are the same, the solution may not be the same as yours.
Let me know it you've seen other areas that could cause the problem.
Isn't this fun. You could fill a book...oh, sorry, already did that.
Bob
