08 TE610 will not turn over

Recently purchased a new 08 TE610 (115 miles so far) and this afternoon while teaching my son how to ride this bike it quit turning over.

My son was having some trouble coordinating the clutch with the throttle and stalled the bike about 6 times, maybe 7. Each time it stalled he would restart the bike and try again, only to stall it again. On about the 7th attempt, the starter refused to turn over the motor.

I thought at first that the battery was weak and from repeated startings it had drained. I hooked it up to slow charger (2 amps) and it took about an hour to show as fully charged. Normally takes about 24 hours to recharge a dead battery.

Starter still refuses to turn over.

Hooked the battery up to a set of jumper cables and still does not turn over.

Pulled the side panels off and checked all the fuses I could find. Three on the right side (all good) and one on the left (yellow, 20 amp) which is good. There is some type of device (starter selonoid?) that the yellow 20 amp fuse was plugged into. As I was holding this device I became aware of a noticeable clicking coming from this item when I would engage the start button.

I measured power at this selonoid across the big wire terminals (one coming in from the battery, one going out to the starter). With the bike off, I'm showing around 12.7 volts. When I push the start button it drops to Zero. Which to me indicated that the selonoid is working???

Now I went to the starter motor and measured voltage across it with everything off and it reads zero. While holding the leads to neg and pos terminals on the starter, I pushed the start button and each time the voltage goes from zero to roughly 6.5 volts.

I'm really confused at this point. I would have thought that the starter motor would draw everything the battery had to offer, +12 volts.

I'm seriously lacking in my basic electrical knowledge, am I missing something really simple or did we manage to burn up the starter?

Thanks for any help you can pass my way,
Lee

Hello Grouser:

First - I don't know for sure what could be causing your problem, but there is a quirk (at least to my way of thinking) about TE610 starting. You probably already know this, but just in case - the clutch has to be pulled in, even if the bike is in neutral. Could the clutch position sensor be malfunctioning? Also, is it possible that the kill switch was pushed in and hasn't been returned to the running position (extended).

Sorry for stating the obvious!

Howard L. Snell

Thanks for the tips. Generally it's the simple things that cause me problems but in this case it's not the clutch lever or kill switch.

If you do not have the clutch lever pulled in, the starter selonoid (or is it called a starter relay?) will not energize (click). When you pull in the lever the relay clicks indicating that it has power.

If you have the kill switch pushed in, it disables the starter relay (no click). I know it's working because when I turn the kill switch on the relay clicks when I hit the start button.

Thanks
Lee

>>> you are methodical<<<

That's funny you say that. My wife has commented in the past that she's never seen anyone methodically dig themselves into a hole faster then me. I'll become so fixated on hooking the water hose up to save my burning home that I completely miss the fact that the hose was the first thing that went up in flames.

That's a great idea about measuring voltage while the jumper cables are hooked up.

Thanks
Lee

>>>(Hope you were kidding about the house)<<<

I did burn my home down (no one was hurt) when I was in 2nd grade, but that's another story for another day.

Went back out to the garage and hooked the automotive battery back up using jumper cables. I hit the start button a few more times (never more then 1-2 seconds) while checking meter readings and all of a sudden the starter starts spinning.

It does not sound right (starter motor) and it does not sound good. It gives me the impression that the starter motor is spinning much faster then it used to and it is not completely engaging the motor. Hard to describe.

The bike started and once it was running everything was fine. Killed the motor, hit the start button (no jumper cables) and the starter motor makes an odd spinning sound, there's about a second of spinning and then it engages the motor, the motor cranks over one, maybe two times and starts.

It sounds like the starter motor is slipping against the motor flywheel (assuming it works the same as a car). Definately does not sound good.

My theory at the moment is that the starter gear became stuck (I'm assuming that it works like a car . . . a gear shoots out and meshes with the flywheel when the starter is energized?). I don't know if the starter gear was stuck in or stuck out but I have a feeling that it is somehow damaged and that damage is preventing the starter from engaging the motor correctly.

Now I'm pulling the starter out of the motor. I tried to take it out from the airbox side of the motor (bolted to the engine case with two bolts) but I am unable to slide the starter motor more then a half inch out before it stops. I'm guessing that I need to drop the engine case cover on the left side of the bike (is this where the stator is located?).

Is this cover holding oil? Once I get this cover off will I be able to reuse the gasket?

Thanks for all the help,
Lee

No worries, you've been a huge help. I've found that I work a little better when I pull myself away from frustrating problems and bounce ideas off of other people. Internet is great for this.

Thanks,
Lee

I believe there is oil behind the left cover. Not sure but your book should show you this on the "Filter Cleaning" pages. One of the fine screen filters is accessed from the left case cover according to the manual if I am reading it correctly.

I seem to have found my problem. Inside the left side case cover there's a small gear set that the gear on the starter motor meshes with. This gear set has three identicle gears (very thin gears) that stack on top of each other. The starter gear meshes with all three gears at the same time and of those three gears, the far gear has two busted teeth and the gear itself has two fractures starting at the missing teeth and disappearing inside the gear set.

I don't know how it happened but is seems that the starter gear busted the teeth and cracked the gear of the . . . not sure what it's called but someone else referred to it as a "torque limiter". Not sure if that's the same part.

Have to wait for the dealer to open on Tuesday. I have a feeling he's not going to have this part in stock. Is there someone in the US that typically has a great supply of new Husky parts in stock?

Thanks for everyone's help,
Lee Jordan

I'd try Dan at Motoxotica. He seems to have a better than average stock of Husky parts.

http://www.motoxotica.com/

Might be a dumb question but, is the bike over the 12 month warranty? Just asking because this would/should be covered under it if it is still within the time frame.