Cleaned my connectors- now my bike won't start HELP!!

[Mobetter]

I just finished cleaning all of my connectors on my bike 1980 GS1000L.
I hooked everything back up and I can't get my starter to fire up.

I checked all my connection, A-OK.
All the lights work, juice to my coils, power across all of my fuses when the ignition is on.

I checked voltage on the green/white wire on the starter relay
when I had ignition switch on, clutched pulled in and hitting the starter button
and I got 10.7 volts, .17 amps but the relay wasn't
tripping because no juice was going to the starter, I checked and zip, zilch,
NADA!

With the ignition turned off, I took the green/white return and touched it
to the hot wire on the relay coming from the battery and the starter cranked fine,
it wouldn't do anything with the ignition on when I tried to
jump across.

I checked the voltage on my hotwire on the relay and got 12.05V and
.18 amps.

Do I have a bad relay? Anyway to check other than what I have done?
Does the starter ground to the engine where it bolts in?
I don't see any ground wires so I assume that's the case.

I need Help!!!!
Send some suggestioins , advice or moral support. ANYTHING!!

Peace
Mo

[Dink]

Mo it sure sounds like your starter relay is stuffed , and it also sounds like the wiring leading to has seen better days 10V is not good.
Dink

[Anonymous]

cleaned my connector

It sounds like your solenoid is OK. You have jumped the green/white wire to the POS terminal of the battery and the starter turned over,...right? It sounds like the solenoid is doing what it is supposed to do. It sounds like you still have a bad connection leading up to the solenoid. From my experience this will cause a voltage drop. If the bike starts up when you have the ingition on and jump the starter that would tell me that your connections are OK up to the kill switch. This is where the circuit branches off to the starter button, clutch switch, then the starter solenoid. The problem may be that the starter button itself is dirty (inside). Try spraying some WD-40 or electronic contact cleaner in around the starter button to clean it out. The starter is grounded right to the engine and the solenoid (light duty side) I think is directly grounded also (no black/white wire coming out). But you don't have to worry about that anyway because it sounds like your solenoid and starter motor are working fine.

[Anonymous]

With the ignition turned off, I took the green/white return and touched it
to the hot wire on the relay coming from the battery and the starter cranked fine,
it wouldn't do anything with the ignition on when I tried to
jump across.

Sorry Mobetter, I'm not sure what you are saying. Are you saying that you tried jumping the green/white wire to the battery hot wire twice, once with the ignition OFF and once with the ignition ON? And that with the ignition OFF the starter turned over, but with the ignition turned ON nothing happened? If that is what you are saying it is puzzling because jumping the starter solenoid like this should be totally independant of the ignition being ON or OFF.

[Mobetter]

I took my starter relay off the bike and used a battery charger to supply
juice to check it out. It clicked everytime!

I put the relay back on the bike and it cranked the starter the first time
I hit it, which made me think that the solenoid had been sticking
but I tried it again ---- Nothing.

Ok, now I'm thinking loose wire or shorting to ground somewhere.
I checked a few voltages and taped up a few connectors that weren't
loose but had metal exposed, so I eliminated that and POOF!!!!
Everything seems to be working ok now, I'm still not real confident.

I don't know if I actually fixed anything.
I used to have a car with a sticky solenoid any you'd have to hit with a hammer whenever it was stuck and it would start up.

Oh well, maybe it was just a short that I cured with 2 cents worth of electrical tape. I guess time will tell.

Thanks for the advice.
Peace
Mo

[Anonymous]

My 550 does that every once in a while. When it does, I just put the bike in gear and move slightly forward or backward and then try again. She usually fires right up. Some of these older bikes just have more personality than others..
BTW...glad to read your other post and see you take a stand for Christ! Keep up the good work!

Kevin

[Anonymous]

maybe its just the starter button finally getting too much corosion on it

[Mobetter]

I finally figured out my problem!!!!!! .

Nobody would have ever guessed this one!

I started checking voltages and noticed as I had said earlier
that I could jump from the yellow green wire on the starter relay to the hot when the bike was off and the relay would connect and the starter would start.
But when I turn the ignition switch on, I couldn't even jump it in this manner.

Makes no sense, but here comes the interesting part.

The green and yellow wire from the relay was showing voltage
when I had it unhooked and the ignition switch on.
This current was heading in the wrong direction!
Current is supposed to be coming in on this wire when the
ignition/clutch pulled in/and start button is pushed and that's what trips
the relay and sends current to the starter.

Where was this backwards juice coming from?
After checking wiring diagrams I thought the relay wan't grounding properly.
I unhooked the relay from the battery box with all the electrical connections still intact and ran an aligator clip ground to a motor bolt
and MAGIC! The starter fired right up!

I checked the threaded part where the relay was supposed to screw into, and with the ignition switch on, I was getting 9 volts coming from the battery box! Apparently the rectifier wire ground that I had run to
the motor wasn't grounding good enough and the battery box was becoming charged, this in turn charged the outside of the relay
and the wire that was supposed to trip the relay.

So I had a charged relay wire with 10.7 volts coming in with 9 volts
trying to go the other way and a net of 1.7volts trying to trip the relay
(assuming current was equivalent).

I guess what pushed this all over the edge was when I was cleaning connections I had also soldered the incoming hot wire to the regulator to get better current and apparent that was enough without a good ground
to exaggerate the problem enough that it caused my starter not to work.

I guess the moral to the story is get a good ground on the rectifier
and maybe take it off of the battery box completely because it
can charge the box and play havoc with the electricals

Peace
Mo

[Anonymous]

I run my R/R output straight to the battery.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Good point as I have said before It increases the reliability if you run an extra HEAVY 10 gauge wire from the reg case (ground) directly to the (-) of the battery

[Anonymous]

I recall a similar thing happening to an 1157 bulb that lost its ground. One filament was the signal, the other was brake. I noticed that when I applied the brake the signal would stop flashing.