Repeat Lesson on Motorcycle Starting Issues

Last month I had learned that the starting issues on Yagi, my TW200, boiled down to a bad battery not providing enough power to start the motorcycle.  I had wasted too much time thinking it was a starter relay, or starter switch issue when I should have checked the battery first along with its connections. 

Today, June 6th, I relearned this lesson. 

I had cleaned out and sprayed graphite lube into the starter on my 2014 Ural Patrol, and it was still having sporadic issues starting the engine. 

This morning, I took apart the ignition switch, to clean it out and while doing so one of the wires going to the kill switch broke off.  Hmmmm, possible culprit I thought.

I managed to resolder the wire onto the kill switch assembly and tested it to make sure it worked before putting it all back together. 

Once assembled, I now had consistent starter issues in that it would not crank the engine on despite many efforts! 

Instead, I learned a new diagnostic procedure, at least when it comes to my motorcycles. 

I hooked up my old battery charger / starter to the battery on Scarlet and she cranked right up! Multiple attempts were made and all were successful. 

I disconnected the old battery charger and the problems returned, pretty conclusive I thought. So there's a new AGM battery on order via Amazon, should be here in a few days. 

The testing had basically drained the old battery enough that it would not provide enough juice to crank the the starter and thereby the engine! 

RV Charging while Driving Function Restored

Wednesday, July 1

As part of the house battery short-circuit debacle, the RV had lost the ability to be charging its house battery while the engine was running on the chassis. 

I tried for several hours on and off and could not figure out what was the deal. 

I suspected it was the battery isolation manager solenoid but lacked the expertise to troubleshoot much beyond the point of accidentally smoking the replacement put in by the Ford dealership.

Martha found me a local Mobile RV Repair guy, Pat Serrant of PEM RV services   Pat showed up today and two hours later he'd replaced the smoked Battery Isolation Manager (BIM), found a couple of fuses that needed replacement and which fixed the ignition override function on the RV's steps as well!

He patiently walked me through the diagnosis steps so that I've gained a better understanding of the charging system.  

New Solenoid 

Fuse for ignition trigger wire

Fuse was busted here too at

The house battery disconnect 

I really must remember to disconnect the battery involved with items I'm troubleshooting!  The above tool, which Pat used to great effect, has made my purchase list.  A bit pricey but beats having to find a good ground with a multimeter while in tight spaces or ackward positions!

You can also use it to provide power to a device when you have the chassis battery disconnected.  Handy.

Thursday, July 2

Spent the morning redoing everything inside the house battery storage compartment on the RV.

After I removed the battery and disconnected the chassis battery as well, I removed and painted the wooden board placed there by the Ford mechanic back in Ohio.  

While that was trying, I secured two metal plates as base support, using self-dapping screws to secure the plates to the seal frame of the box compartment. 

I redid the routing of all the cables so that there's no way they can touch each other, especially the positive terminal by the shunt device onto which all ground/negative cables connect.  It was the contact by the shunt device onto the battery positive terminal which cost the short circuit last month. 

I also lined the walls with plastic cutting board material, thin stuff, to help keep the dust out along with water spray when driving in the rain. White gorilla tape was used to see all the seams and openings remaining. 

By then used a ratchet strap and blocking pieces of wood to firmly secure the battery in place! 

Here's other compartment looks now: 

A more top down view showing separations.

Theoretically, I could go camping now.  But with the Fourth of July weekend coming up (amateur hours), I'll take her to storage instead.  Besides, I've scheduled her for the shop in Parker, CO for diagnosis of recurring OBD codes.

Spring Fling 2026: The Fling is Flung - Home Again

June 29

The last day of this last trip by us via motorhome to the eastern half of the country!

We left the Sylvan Park COE campground at 0645 CDT and arrived home at 1247 MDT.

We're very glad Uma, the VRRV gave us no further issues since the small scare involving the air filter in Wentzville, MO. 

We unloaded Uma and started in on the post-camping trip chores 

Some of the lessons learned:

Anything east of the Rockies is hot and humid in late Spring/Summer.  Sure, it's hot here in Colorado but way lower in humidity!

When you buy cheap parts, you may come to regret it.

You can get oversaturated with history and museums.  16 museums (including battlefield parks and attractions).

You can never go back to the friendships you remember.  

Just because it's grass covered, doesn't mean you shouldn't walk it before driving onto a spot in wetter climates.

Good family will always come through for you.

Don't trust a dealership to buy the right house battery for an RV, provide it to them yourself.  To be fair, they trusted the AutoZone guy.

Getting medical care at a non-VA facility but paid for by the VA is doable, getting prescriptions paid for by the VA can be problematical, self pay if possible.

Last but not least, a saying from Martha's dad: There's always a tuition for life's education.

Here's a compilation of stats, then and now both for record and consideration

I'd mentioned before we'd made a somewhat similar trip to the East Coast back in the summer of 2021.  

2021

74 days trip, 11 as guests of friends 

4887 miles driven by the VRRV.

Assuming $3/gal gas spent almost $2100

$630 camping fees

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2026

62 day trip, 19 as guests of friends 

4866 miles driven by VRRV 

Gas avg cost $4.05/gal.  $2635.25 spent on gas by VRRV.  $429.77 in gas for the Honda CR-V and Yagi, the TW200.

$665.63 in camping fees

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Back in 2021 I hadn't started using a gas/mileage tracking app to log such costs.

For the Spring Fling the app reports: (just for VRRV)

May 2026: 

Fuel price avg: $4.12/gal. Low: $3.89 High:$4.39

Fuel Purchased 222.948 gallons

Fuel Cost $918.40. Miles driven 1606 ($0.572 per mile)

June 2026

Fuel Price (avg) $3.92 per gallon.  Low: $3.35  High:$4.53

Fuel Purchased 368.442 gallons

Fuel Cost $1,444.88.  Miles driven 2587 ($0.559 per mile)

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Overall costs:

Counting fuel, lodging, food, entertainment and misc: $96.61/day.

The above overall costs don't include the repairs to the VRRV due to the short-circuiting incident.

Spring Fling 2026 - Day 61: Sylvan Grove COE

We got an early start to the day today, leaving the Missouri Conservation Dept's Boat Ramp/campsite at Roberts Bluff, Missouri at 0615 hours.

Driving was very tiring as it was a very windy day, and we were fighting winds from the West and Southwest all morning!

By 1300 we were almost done setting up camp at the Sylvan Park campground near Wilson Lake. It is a Corps of Engineers campground, and I realized as I drove into it that I had been here before! Yep, August of 2021 as I was headed home from a previous trip to the Eastern half of the country, the really humid half as I had selectively forgotten it seems.

Today was damn hot, sunny though only with a relative humidity of 39%, which beats me almost 95% humidity we experienced in Missouri yesterday!  The RV thermometer was showing an outside temperature of 100° F.

We plugged into shore power, a major factor in picking a COE site for today, and spent the rest of the afternoon in AC comfort inside the RV.  It did take quite a while to cool down the inside of the RV though, as it had been showing a temperature of 85°F when we started setting up camp.

While we waited for the RV to cool down, we both took cooling outdoor showers beside the RV after I had hooked up the campsite water faucet.

Tomorrow, Colorado and home!