Ignition Button Dead

[dovg01]

Hi there,
I am new to this forum, and to biking in general. Bought my first bike a couple weeks ago - 1982 GS850G. To cut to the chase, I dropped it earlier today trying to do a tight u-turn on a side street. It was not a hard drop, but the clutch lever hit hard and snapped off.
Long story short, I grabbed a spare lever from a fellow GSer in my neighborhood and attached it no problem. Trouble is now the ignition button wont work. Not even a click.
I eventually got the bike started (with the help of a couple GSers on this forum) by using jumper cables and hotwiring it. It took a while to start up but eventually got it home.
The ignition button still does not work. Checked the battery at home and voltage is good, but it still wont start without jumping and hotwiring it.

Any thoughts about what's going on?

Thanks.

[shwaz]

"fellow GSer" here.


some additional info:

we got the bike started by shorting out the (starter solenoid?) - under the left hand side cover, near the fuse box.

my first step is going to be unscrewing the safety switch (or whatever it's called) underneath the clutch lever to check for a loose wire. If the bike isn't sensing that the clutch lever is squeezed, that would stop the ignition button from working.

further explanation / concern:
regarding "it still won't start without jumping and hotwiring it" - meaning that even when shorting out the starter solenoid, the bike wouldn't start until we hooked up the battery to a car battery. trying to short it with just the bike's battery gave the starter motor a very weak groan, no turning over.
battery voltage was not checked prior to "jumping" it and riding it home. voltage with the bike off currently reads 11.47, which i *think* is low, but not low enough to stop the starter motor from at least trying a bit harder... so that's concerning as well.

[cableguy]

The clutch safety switch can be bypassed in the headlight bucket. Follow the wires from the switch into the bucket, unplug the leads from the harness end, then connect the harness leads to each other.

[slayer61]

This might sound stupid, but hear me out. I had a similar incident years ago and discovered after many hours of troubleshooting that I had toggled the run/stop switch on the right handlebar in the fall. I never even thought about that because I never used it. Always shut the bike off with the key! Good luck. Paul

[shwaz]

This might sound stupid, but hear me out. I had a similar incident years ago and discovered after many hours of troubleshooting that I had toggled the run/stop switch on the right handlebar in the fall. I never even thought about that because I never used it. Always shut the bike off with the key! Good luck. Paul

not stupid at all. we definitely made sure it was in Run, but who knows if something inside there got jarred and it's stuck in off somehow. That's also on my list to look at

[shwaz]

The clutch safety switch can be bypassed in the headlight bucket. Follow the wires from the switch into the bucket, unplug the leads from the harness end, then connect the harness leads to each other.

thanks. i was definitely looking for this information.

[dovg01]

Thanks for clarifying the problem and the solutions. Will post updates as we go.

[eil]

voltage with the bike off currently reads 11.47, which i *think* is low, but not low enough to stop the starter motor from at least trying a bit harder... so that's concerning as well.

That battery could be toast. Or at the very least, needs to be charged. Keep in mind that a lead-acid battery can read 12V with a multimeter and still be bad (or discharged). You don't know the true condition of the battery unless you check the voltage while putting a significant load on it. Usually this means using a load tester or watching the voltage while running the starter.

[cableguy]

Autozone should be able to load test it for free

[dovg01]

Thanks. Battery is charging and I will load test when it is done. If that doesnt work, i'll bypass the clutch safety switch to rule that out. If that doesnt work, well, its back to the drawing board.

[Nessism]

Clutch safety switch.

[shwaz]

huzzah! (i'm 90% sure)

Clutch safety switch.

haahahhaa
+all.

Nessism is correct (surprise surprise).


My preliminary "test" involved unscrewing the safety switch sensor from the clutch lever, holding a screwdriver across it, and pressing the starter button. ROAR!

after dov's bike fell over and clutch lever broke, we pulled the "replacement" clutch lever off my (NOT A PARTS BIKE!) '78 gs1000. that bike doesn't even have a clutch safety switch, which is probably why squeezing that lever didn't trigger the safety switch.


hooray for easy problems! hoping this is all for this one. my DL650 should be back in my garage from the shop by tomorrow midday (a totally unrelated story that i'm pretty much too embarrassed to post up about here) and i'm ready to start working on my GS1000... which i frankly can't wait for.



good times.

thanks all for your eyes on this thread. i'll definitely post up if i try both of these and they don't work, in this order:
a) replacing the clutch lever with the appropriate replacement that will trigger the clutch safety lever as intended or
b) follow the clutch safety wiring back to the bucket and shorting it as referenced earlier in this thread.


looking forward to getting my 1000 on the road and being a true GSer again soon!

~el schwartzo

[shwaz]

Clutch safety switch.

so i gotta ask, since your post is neither a question nor advice but a statement of fact,

"how?"

how did you know that? or better yet, to improve my understanding of how these bikes work, how come the crazy ass "shorting out the starter solenoid" was necessary to get the starter motor to turn over?

how come it worked at all?

how come we needed an auxiliary power source (car battery) to convince the engine to kick over? <----- this is probably my main question. i'm ok accepting that we didn't trigger the safety switch and had no right to push the starter button, but how come the "shorting the solenoid" trick worked with a battery jump but not without?



curiousity....
, as opposed to

[Tim Tom]

That battery should be fine, it was new about a year ago... Still definitely a good use to test it and make sure it's charging up to snuff.

I though they was a spare clutch lever in that box o parts that went with the bike? Or perhaps that was a brake lever, I can't recall...

Now fix my old bike already sheesh!

[Killer2600]

how come we needed an auxiliary power source (car battery) to convince the engine to kick over? <----- this is probably my main question. i'm ok accepting that we didn't trigger the safety switch and had no right to push the starter button, but how come the "shorting the solenoid" trick worked with a battery jump but not without?

Short answer: Don't question the magic that is electricity and just be glad it works.

Long answer: A dead battery won't start anything, jumping it with a car and riding home gave the battery a chance to charge up to 11.47 volts. For all we know it could have been at 10 volts when you were on the road trying to fix it.