Battery Earth

[cooltshirt]

Occasionally my bike fails to start when left for a few days. Just a solenoid click. Once started for the day all is well. Battery is less than a year old and on a trickle. Has anyone fitted a supplementary earth strap and if so where to?
Thanks

[Upt North]

Hi there fella.
Before you go adding other stuff have you tried cleaning existing earths and have you load tested the battery?
Upt'North.

[cooltshirt]

I will double check the battery, but have no concerns about it.
I can't see how to access the earth strap on the back of the engine without dismantling half the thing and don't want to fiddle about in an area of restricted access and be unable to do the bolt up to the correct torque.
That's current thinking anyway 

[Joe Rocket]

My last battery went Kaput inside it's 9 month warranty. Before it did it had similar symptoms as you've experienced. I've now had 3 new batteries on mine, one each year,  since the original from new, it lasted 5 years.

Obviously double check it. 

[cooltshirt]

So decided to have another go at this.
Working in the garage with a torch let me see in the gubbins easier than outside in sunshine as when I last tried this.
Removed brake lever and swung out of the way
Moved breather pipes aside.
Removed bolt from crankcase .... didn't look too bad, but cleaned everything up and put it back together.
Hardest part was removing and replacing brake lever to master cylinder pivot split pin.
Put a wee bit of paint on the bolt so I can see if it moves.
Haven't actually tested it yet as it is pouring with rain in Edinburgh and didn't want to fire it up for two minutes idling.
I will report back later if you can bear the suspense 

[purplebikeunicorn]

Are the battery connections definitely tight and clean?

If you take the bike to Halfords or a local auto electrician they should be able to test the battery for you with their electromagical tester. Not a load test (which is good, cos if your battery is fubar that may kill it), but enough to tell you "yes the battery is good", or "no, battery is on its way out".

How you describe having to turn the key, try cranking, then try later reminds me of my old car battery in the cold weather. It'd "warm up" for want of a better word, then have no problem starting the car. Turned out to be a faulty battery (local auto electrician refused to load test it after the electromagical tester told him it was dead... probably for the best).

[cooltshirt]

Went out for a run today and it started first time. Not conclusive, but it does suggest that the earth may have been the problem. Also found the batter receipt if I need to pursue that.

[cooltshirt]

Went out for a run today and again it started just fine.
I think the take away from this is that the earth bolt / engine surfaces can look reasonably OK, but still not conduct enough current. I also think that the factory loctite stuff is a pretty good insulator and cleaning that off has helped as well.
But today it was all good and had a great run