Frozen Starter

[Oly 16]

Hey Everyone,

Just got back from a weekend of sledding up near Dorset, Ontario. Saturday morning i ran into some issues with my 2006 Apex RTX that i thought i would share with you guys in case anyone else every runs across the same problem.

We got there late friday night, unload the sleds and all our stuff and settled in at my cottage for the night. In the morning i went to start the sled and when i turned the key i had the fuel pump priming and the starter relay clicking but i was not getting the starter turning over the sled. So we got into troubleshooting what could be wrong and we ruled out dead/bad battery by putting my battery in my buddies sled (started fine). So we had power and the relay working but even if we bypassed the relay and put power directly to the starter we were getting nothing. Even tried tapping the starter lightly with a hammer and still nothing.

We ended up pulling the starter and put it on top of the wood stove for 5 minutes. We then bench tested it with my battery in the cottage and viola..it finally engaged...Itstalled everything back in the sled and went out for the day.

My thoughts were that since i only unloaded the sleds friday night and took a couple trips back and forth on it to bring our stuff in, that it must have developed moisture but didnt get hot enough to evaporate it. It then got to damn near -30 that night which must have froze it up.

Just thought this might be some info that might help someone out someday.

Cheers.

 

[Irv]

Hey Everyone,

Just got back from a weekend of sledding up near Dorset, Ontario. Saturday morning i ran into some issues with my 2006 Apex RTX that i thought i would share with you guys in case anyone else every runs across the same problem.

We got there late friday night, unload the sleds and all our stuff and settled in at my cottage for the night. In the morning i went to start the sled and when i turned the key i had the fuel pump priming and the starter relay clicking but i was not getting the starter turning over the sled. So we got into troubleshooting what could be wrong and we ruled out dead/bad battery by putting my battery in my buddies sled (started fine). So we had power and the relay working but even if we bypassed the relay and put power directly to the starter we were getting nothing. Even tried tapping the starter lightly with a hammer and still nothing.

We ended up pulling the starter and put it on top of the wood stove for 5 minutes. We then bench tested it with my battery in the cottage and viola..it finally engaged...Itstalled everything back in the sled and went out for the day.

My thoughts were that since i only unloaded the sleds friday night and took a couple trips back and forth on it to bring our stuff in, that it must have developed moisture but didnt get hot enough to evaporate it. It then got to damn near -30 that night which must have froze it up.

Just thought this might be some info that might help someone out someday.

Cheers.

Good to know Oly, thanks for sharing.

 

[ranger1]

Whoaaa, that exact same thing happened to my 06 Attak last week!!!! After a day of playing in the snow, we took a break for lunch & when I went to start the sled I could hear the solenoid but the starter wouldn't work! I whacked the bottom of the bulkhead just below the starter with a rubber mallet & luckily it worked! It started several times that day after that. Went to start it yesterday & it did the same thing.
So I as well am wondering if it could be moister or could it need to be cleaned & brushes replaced? Starter shouldn't be pooched after 6000 miles, I wouldn't think.

 

[RTX]

Mine froze the first year I had it. Wasn't happy about it but I had no other choice so I peed on it and it solved my issue.
It has never happened again
Hope you had a good laugh.

 

[Ak Yammy]

Probably would not get too carried away with pouring hot liquids (pee ect) on it. I had the windings come loose from the shaft on mine after a bit of a splash from some water that I crossed in the spring. Mine was probably more from the cold water but still something to consider Whole starter had to be replaced as the part needed to fix was not available. If you ever get a nasty squeal that is it and just know that your starter is living on borrowed time.

Yes ranger1 they are easy to take apart very simple but only the brushes and some other small parts are available from Yamaha.

 

[RTX]

im not in the habit of peeing on anything other than a toilet. LOL
seriously though. it wasnt something i wanted to do. it was something i HAD to do. i was in the same situation as ranger1. 70 miles away from home. we tried taping on it but it made no difference
it was pee or spend the night out behind a restaraunt/gas station.
ill choose pee every time!!

 

[bigreis]

Isn't possible to pull start these sleds in the event of a starter failure? I think I remember seeing a video last year of someone showing how to do it...

 

[Dreams_of_Apex]

Isn't possible to pull start these sleds in the event of a starter failure? I think I remember seeing a video last year of someone showing how to do it...

Yes it is, there was a Video up on here, I would assume that Battery needs to be working, as well as Fuel pump and relay can't be frozen, but you can clutch start off the Primary, seems pretty easy as long as you have battery power.

But then Its not as good a story as Peeing on it!!

 

[Irv]

Isn't possible to pull start these sleds in the event of a starter failure? I think I remember seeing a video last year of someone showing how to do it...

Don't know how to post it properly, but here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7q9yT5xVy8

(Doubt his sled was cold though?)

 

[RTX]

you can pull start them with a rope around the clutch. i have done it once before with a warm sled. never done it to a cold sled so i cant say if its more difficult of not.

When my starter froze on me it was back in 2006 before we all knew how to resolve problems like this. I knew it was the starter because we were riding through some fine snow dust all day. you could hear everything come on but just a click from the starter.

obviously the sled in that video was warmed up pretty well. that guy would have never shut it down that fast and restarted it reving the throttle if it wasn't

 

[ranger1]

im not in the habit of peeing on anything other than a toilet. LOL
seriously though. it wasnt something i wanted to do. it was something i HAD to do. i was in the same situation as ranger1. 70 miles away from home. we tried taping on it but it made no difference
it was pee or spend the night out behind a restaraunt/gas station.
ill choose pee every time!!

Like they say, when things are not working out....."piss on it!!!! hahahaha

Seriously though, I tried to pull start the clutch the second time it didn't start & unfortunately it was a chilly -25 celcius that eve!!!!! Did it start......nooooooooo fricken way, really felt like "pissing on it" after I was done yanking on it with no success!!!!! lol

 

[Blue Dave]

you can pull start them with a rope around the clutch. i have done it once before with a warm sled. never done it to a cold sled so i cant say if its more difficult of not.

When my starter froze on me it was back in 2006 before we all knew how to resolve problems like this. I knew it was the starter because we were riding through some fine snow dust all day. you could hear everything come on but just a click from the starter.

obviously the sled in that video was warmed up pretty well. that guy would have never shut it down that fast and restarted it reving the throttle if it wasn't

It will absolutely be harder to pull start a cold Apex. Depending on how cold I would say it may be impossible. This really only works on warm sleds. I would not have thought of pissing on it but it does make for a good story. If you have full coverage insurance you could try pouring gas on it and throw a match at it!