I have proper voltage on the battery,I run several load test on the battery and even took the new battery out my Buell but made no difference,I think my issue is in the decompression portion of the valvetrain.I'm hoping the new rocker arm I have ordered will solve the issue.The cam lobes looked great as well as the decompression ball and lever that engages the ball for decompression,the return spring was weak so I replaced it.The only thing that caught my attention was the light groove on the exhaust rocker where the ball rides,the groove may be deep enough to not allow the exhaust valves to open up enough to allow proper decompression.I did not pull the cam but might,it may have some sludge or trash inside it causing the decompression lever to stick because that little spring has very little tension to return it.I'm still baffled due to the fact it might have 10 perfect starts,then a dragging start then 10 more perfect starts,hot or cold makes no difference.It would be nice if it just quit and would not start at all,it would make it a bit easier to diagnose

 

I about ready to give up on trying to solve this issue. In simpler terms I guess you could say my problem mimicks starter drag or it's very slow to turn over at times,not all the time though.So far I've checked the battery, bypassed the solenoid,checked all wiring,replaced the starter and starter drive,inspected the cam,replaced the decompression lever spring which seemed weak,the exhaust rocker arm which had a slight groove in it from the ball hoping the groove was affecting the rate of valve opening for decompression,checked the timing,rechecked valve lash several times,inspected the belt to be sure it was not grabbing the sheaves,tested it without the drive belt.I traced my footsteps back in time to the day all this started,that morning a over a week ago I did my typical oil change on my Sportsman and my inlaws SP500 using the Polaris oil change kit on both,that afternoon is when the dragging issue started,I had bought 2 change kits for myself so for the heck of it I even changed the oil again several days ago.It does seem worse if it is cold vs hot.I drove it today after changing the rocker and it run fine,even cut it off 10 or so times after it was hot and it fired back no problems,I went back out a few minutes ago to put it in the garage, it fired right up so thinking I've solve it ,I switched it off and sure enough it dragged to start again.

 

Back to the oil change,this morning it's around 35 degrees,went out and fired it up no problem,switched it off and restarted it,this time it would drag,after about 10 restarts it would drag 4 out of 10 starts.I idled it up and let it run for about 10 minutes till the fan kicked on so I knew it was up to temp and the problem is gone,no hard starts after many trys.Is the oil to thick causing issues with the decompression,like I stated before the problem did not start till I did my last oil change a 9 days ago,the oil that I drained was also 40wt polaris oil that was changed back near the end of summer.

 

i guess its shure worth a try. never know i quess.....

 

My starter would work some times and other times not,then finally never I would just hear a click. It turn out the starter bushes were dirty and sticking, I took the starter apart and cleaned and lubed the brushes and got them moving freely again and its been fine for 2 years now.

I would love to know how many starter get tossed just because of a stuck brush.