stater button quit working

[Guest]

Yesterday mourning in I started the bike, I noticed immediately I forgot my ear plugs. I turned it off, put them in, tried to start it, nothing. Took off the clutch inter-lock and cleaned it up, still nothing. R handle bar switch cluster appeared clean and nothing loose. Had to ride 300 mile to get home, so I jumped the solenoid to start it to get home. How should I procede ? Thanks.

[Steve]

Hopefully you have a test light or a voltmeter. A test light would be quicker and easier for this job.

With the key ON, see if you have voltage at the little wire on the solenoid when you push the starter. If you do, it's a bad solenoid or maybe even a bad ground wire to the solenoid. To test that, put your test light on the body of the solenoid, press the starter button. If the test light comes on, it's a bad ground.

If you don't have a light in the first test, pull the fuel tank, follow the wires from the starter button down to the main harness. You are looking for a connector that probably has two orange/white wires and a yellow/green wire. They might have their own connector or they might be three of the wires in a much larger connector. The yellow/green wire is the one that goes from the starter button to the solenoid. Use your test light to see if it comes on when you push the button. If not, check the orange/white wires to see if they are live. One of the orange/white wires will have a red sleeve near the connector. Check that first. It is connected to the fuse. It probably works, because you said the bike ran when you jumped across the solenoid. Check the other orange/white wire. That one probably also works, because that feeds the coils. If you see power there, operate the "kill" switch, you should see a change in the light.

If your only problem is in the yellow/green wire, clean the contacts behind the starter switch, but be careful, there are spring-loaded bits that are just waiting for you.

.

[jona]

Will do tomorrow- I will report results.

[scrapper]

I have to smack my solenoid with a ratchet or the handle of a screwdriver with the button pushed in to get it to work. It works when I do that and sometimes just tap with my finger and it works. I put a garden tractor one on and added a extra wire to the battery for a ground, still does it. Good Luck

[jona]

This is what I did Steve; key on-no light at little wire with starter pushed. Light on at yellow/green on with button push. Used light to test forward contact of clutch safety switch. Pushed button, light on-motor started. Looped the two yellow/green wires in headlight bucket. Problem gone. No more clutch safety switch. Thanks for getting me thinking.

[rwnielsen]

Button Assembly


This is what's behind the button. The small disc is copper and...
This is the board after I cleaned it off with a SS toothbrush


There's 2 screws holding the assembly together and if you're carefull nothing will go flying.
A little dielectric grease will go a long way towards keeping it from corroding.
Mine didn't work after being parked for 11 years. Same symptoms you're experiencing