1980 GS1000 - Solenoid Clicks, But No Start

[Guest]

As the title says. This bike's electricals were a bit mangled due to... a long story. Trying to patch it up and alls I get is a "click" at the solenoid. Tried jumping the leads, nada. Swapped the battery for a known good, still just clicks. Finally, the bike starts and runs fine via a bump start.

Either the starter is out or the solenoid, I assume. Starter is suspect due to its irresponsiveness when jumping the solenoid leads. How do I narrow this down?

[mikerophone]

A few more details in that long story may aid in troubleshooting...Connections are all clean and cables to the battery and starter are tight and all in that circuit are corrosion free? You say known good battery but is it known good voltage with a meter or actually start another bike?

I ask because batteries can test out at over 12V but not have enough amperage to crank over a starter. Perhaps you already know that, but it's worth mentioning. The fact that it will bump start makes me think it's a connection to the starter or like you say, the starter itself, and by jumping the solenoid leads you mean you tried connecting the screw terminals at the solenoid with a screwdriver? If the solenoid clicks it's usually ok. Perhaps test the resistance of your grounds and leads to the battery and solenoid, it's possible that it's just not getting enough amperage through the cables.

Has this bike run for you before, and have you done the GS charging health tests since you've owned it?

[GSCafe]

Clicky, clicky suggests solenoid acting but not enough amperage to engage the starter. If you swapped power for known good, I suspect starter.

[Phaedrus]

Hmmm...

Known good = pulled it from a running bike.

It's gotta be something with the the starter circuit... On the wiring diagram, it shows that the solenoid casing is grounded to the chassis, but mine was only mounted to the electronics plate. I added a small ~10AWG jumper from one of it's mounting points to the frame. Before I did this, there was no clicky clicky at all. Could the solenoid ground be too small? Would a larger gauge ground pull more amperage? I guess the better question is: how is the solenoid normally grounded to the chassis?

Bike was running like a beast before the wiring got messed up, which makes me doubt the starter died on me. Stranger things have happened though...

[tom203]

Solenoid frame needs to be grounded to bike frame to complete circuit for trigger wire from starter button- if it clicks, it's working. It is only about 3 amp draw on trigger circuit so no big wire needed here.
solenoid could be messed up inside, but you can jump the big terminals on solenoid to see if starter motor now spins. Remember that starter motor frame needs to be in good contact with engine.

[Brendan W]

You can eliminate the starter motor by jumping a good battery to the engine and the positive terminal on the starter. If that spins ok move the positive jump lead back up to the pin on the dowstream side of the solenoid. If that's ok move the negative jump lead to the bike battery negative terminal. If these all check out the only things left are the positive supply from the battery to the solenoid and the wiring to the solenoid coil. As Tom said I would suspect the earthing of the solenoid. A bad connection here could be dropping a few volts and then with the additional drop as she tries to crank the coil could drop out altogether. My single point ground is a post on the solenoid case with both frame earth wires and the r/r earth and then a wire to the batt negative.

[mvalenti]

I agree, check the circuit... battery+ connected to one side of solenoid, Black wire from starter lug connected to other side of solenoid (I bold this because a buddy had cnected the black wire to ground thinking black is automatically ground....... If solenoid is "clicking" its grounded proper, and start button is wired proper...

[JTGS850GL]

Measure the voltage across the battery when the starter in engaged. If the voltage drops to around 11 volts or lower then the battery is the problem. Either charge or replace it.

If battery checks out then it is either the starter or the main ground since jumping across the solenoid did not turn the starter motor. Use a volt meter and measure the voltage between the terminal at the starter motor and a case ground. Make sure the bolt that holds the starter cable is tight and clean along with the battery terminal connections. Verify that the voltage at the starter terminal is near battery voltage when the starter is engaged. If so then the starter is bad.

If not then measure the voltage between the engine case and the negative terminal of the battery with the starter engaged. If the voltage isn't close to zero then the ground is the problem.

This all assumes that the engine is not froze. If the above checks out then take the signal generator cover off and turn the engine over by hand to make sure it's not frozen up.


Report back what you find.

[850 Combat]

There are two fat wires on the solenoid. They are bolted to the solenoid. With a known good battery hooked up, take a screw driver or a pair of pliers, or any piece of metal and touch it both together. Ir the starter spins the motor, you have a bad solenoid. If it doesn't, you have a different problem, more than likely in the starter. Bad grounds can make the solenoid act like it id bad as well.

[Steve]

This all assumes that the engine is not froze. If the above checks out then take the signal generator cover off and turn the engine over by hand to make sure it's not frozen up.

Referring back to the orgininal post, ...

As the title says. This bike's electricals were a bit mangled due to... a long story. Trying to patch it up and alls I get is a "click" at the solenoid. Tried jumping the leads, nada. Swapped the battery for a known good, still just clicks. Finally, the bike starts and runs fine via a bump start.

Either the starter is out or the solenoid, I assume. Starter is suspect due to its irresponsiveness when jumping the solenoid leads. How do I narrow this down?

.

[Phaedrus]

You can eliminate the starter motor by jumping a good battery to the engine and the positive terminal on the starter. If that spins ok move the positive jump lead back up to the pin on the dowstream side of the solenoid. If that's ok move the negative jump lead to the bike battery negative terminal. If these all check out the only things left are the positive supply from the battery to the solenoid and the wiring to the solenoid coil. As Tom said I would suspect the earthing of the solenoid. A bad connection here could be dropping a few volts and then with the additional drop as she tries to crank the coil could drop out altogether. My single point ground is a post on the solenoid case with both frame earth wires and the r/r earth and then a wire to the batt negative.

Awesome, logical step-by-step. Thanks. This did the trick.

1) Tested the starter straight from a battery (positive to the starter lead, - to engine ground). Starter promptly spun. -- Starter is good!
2) Tested from the downstream solenoid terminal to the starter lead. Nada. -- The issue is with this wire.

Sure enough, the wire had a barrel half way between the solenoid and the starter where one end had been pulled out. It was hidden under some electrical tape.

Stoked to know that it wasn't a failed part! Thanks for all of the replies helping me to hone in on this. Time to patch it all up and get her out for a ride Ya'll are awesome.