• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

1980 GS850 Starter Cranks When Positive Terminal Connected

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kodak
  • Start date Start date
K

Kodak

Guest
Hey guys,

was as wrapping up wiring and getting reading to throw the carbs on and fire up the bike for the first time in a while. When I went to connect the starter motor wire to the positive terminal she started cranking over. So I check to mark sure the starter solenoid had the red positive wire going to the fuse block and the positive battery terminal. Then made sure the ground to solenoid screw mount was done. So what could I be missing here? This is all in a new electronics tray I fabricated. Going to get a late lunch and think about it. Thanks guys for any help!!
 
Re-check your connections. The battery feed for the fuse box (red wire) might come from the battery end or the solenoid end of the large wire that goes from battery to solenoid. The other large wire goes to the starter. The case of the solenoid should be grounded, usually by a wire on the mounting bolt. The fourth connection to the solenoid is a yellow/green wire that comes from the starter button. Disconnect that wire, then try your connection that got the starter spinning the first time. If it still spins, you have a stuck solenoid.

The solenoid does not really have "positive" or "negative" terminals. It only has a "hot" terminal that connects to the battery, a "switched" terminal that goes to the starter, a "trigger" terminal that comes from the starter button and it needs a ground. In the GS solenoids, the ground is the metal body, which is usually mounted to a rubber-isolated plate on the battery, which requires the use of a separate ground wire. When I saw you last week, your tray was going to be securely mounted to the frame. If it is, you can just bolt the solenoid to the tray, but it certainly would not hurt anything to run a redundant ground wire to be sure.

.
 
Well it looks like my grounds are right. Is there any other way to check for the solenoid being bad? It was working just fine two months ago.
 
Got it. Well at least I can be confident in my ignorance. Told newbie mistake. Wrap it up boys nothing to see here.... :cool:
 
Steve said:
Re-check your connections. The battery feed for the fuse box (red wire) might come from the battery end or the solenoid end of the large wire that goes from battery to solenoid. The other large wire goes to the starter. The case of the solenoid should be grounded, usually by a wire on the mounting bolt. The fourth connection to the solenoid is a yellow/green wire that comes from the starter button. Disconnect that wire, then try your connection that got the starter spinning the first time. If it still spins, you have a stuck solenoid.

The solenoid does not really have "positive" or "negative" terminals. It only has a "hot" terminal that connects to the battery, a "switched" terminal that goes to the starter, a "trigger" terminal that comes from the starter button and it needs a ground. In the GS solenoids, the ground is the metal body, which is usually mounted to a rubber-isolated plate on the battery, which requires the use of a separate ground wire. When I saw you last week, your tray was going to be securely mounted to the frame. If it is, you can just bolt the solenoid to the tray, but it certainly would not hurt anything to run a redundant ground wire to be sure.

.
Click to expand...
Can it be because of battery? Is it possible that the battery just being expired? I am seriously thinking of replacing one on something from https://www.icrfq.com/category/2 , but I am a complete noob here. Thanks in advance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top