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Engine Spins on Starter when Kill Switch is OFF

  • Thread starter Thread starter Suzuki_Don
  • Start date Start date
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Suzuki_Don

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When I turn the ign sw ON and have the kill sw. in the OFF position and press the starter button the engine turns over as normal. Of course it does not start because kill sw is OFF.

Is this normal or have I wired something up incorrectly when I rebuilt my loom.

Looking at the wiring diagrams the O/W wire from the fuse seems to go directly to one side of the kill sw, so when the kill switch is OFF the current stops at the kill sw and does not continue over to the starter button until the kill sw is activated.

Does anyone else have a GS that will turn over on the starter button when the kill sw is in the OFF position.

Comments please.
 
Suzuki_Don said:
When I turn the ign sw ON and have the kill sw. in the OFF position and press the starter button the engine turns over as normal. Of course it does not start because kill sw is OFF.

Is this normal or have I wired something up incorrectly when I rebuilt my loom.

Looking at the wiring diagrams the O/W wire from the fuse seems to go directly to one side of the kill sw, so when the kill switch is OFF the current stops at the kill sw and does not continue over to the starter button until the kill sw is activated.

Does anyone else have a GS that will turn over on the starter button when the kill sw is in the OFF position.

Comments please.
Click to expand...
it sounds like you have the 2 orange and white wires switched, if you look at the plug end of the harness for the handle bar control you will see that there are 2 orange and white wires but 1 has a little red band on it, that one is the powered one which feeds the switch and should go through the kill switch first then the start button, not start button then kill switch. I hope I explained this right. I only know this because I did the same thing once.
 
There is a modification that some of us do to make what you are experiencing happen on purpose. We do it so the engine is spinning before there is spark to avoid the engine kicking backwards and breaking the starter clutch bolts. These motors are higher horsepower and thats why it is done. Check the search function and you should be able to see how this comes about...
Curt
 
Nope. I've actually had two of those switches go bad I'm guessing because I never use the killswitch. It's possible you've wired something "backards" or it's possible the killswitch is bad.
IIRC there are actually two wires that come off that switch. One feeds power to the ignition, the other feeds power to the starter. Of course I don't have a diagram in front of me at the moment, but I chased a similar bug a while back in the 1100E I was resurrecting (I shan't say restoring cause it wasn't all stock and I only did the motor, frame, and wiring...he took care of the "tarting up") for Griffin. Motor would turn over, but no sparky sparky. Turned out the contact in the killswitch was dead, feeding power to the starter solenoid, but not to the ignitor.
I think, after pulling what's left of my hair out, and stripping the harness bare looking for a short somewhere in the loom, I figured it out by running a jumper from known good power down stream of the switch straight to the ignitor.
Then once I isolated the killswitch being the culprit I had to figure out why and worked back all the way to the contacts in the switch.
From what I could tell, they weren't replaceable, so I just got a different switch, and tossed that one. Dunno if that'll help or not, but it sounds pretty similar.
 
CK I don't think that is my problem as I tested the kill switch when I redid the wiring and it was in perfect condition. I think the other guys might be on the money with the wires being back-to-front going to the kill switch.

I don't mind it the way it is and it is causing no problems. Like you, I rarely use the kill switch, it is mostly in the ON position and the bike starts immediately I press the starter. And it still performs it's function when turned to OFF it kills the coils.

I just wondered if there might have been an alternative wiring diagram for Oz or something like that. I know the U.S. wiring diagrams are a bit different to our bikes in that they have lights ON all the time and we have the option of having our lights ON or OFF.

Another variation to throw into the mix is that I have installed GS650G R/H switchgear to the bike when I re-wired it. So I either got the O/W wires back-to-front or the wiring inside the 650 switchgear is different.

Thanks for the comments, I will go and have a look at the modification for the 1100 starter that was mentioned earlier and maybe look at some other wiring diagrams for reference.
 
Not sure about the early GSes, but some early Hondas would act like that, properly wired from the factory. :o

It's kind of fun to walk down a line of GoldWings at a larger gathering, identifying the older ones (they almost look alike) and hitting the kill switches. If you are lucky, you might be in the vicinity when the owner comes back and can't figure out WHY his bike won't start. :rolleyes:
They never think of checking the kill switch, because they didn't flip it. :D

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Steve said:
Not sure about the early GSes, but some early Hondas would act like that, properly wired from the factory. :o

It's kind of fun to walk down a line of GoldWings at a larger gathering, identifying the older ones (they almost look alike) and hitting the kill switches. If you are lucky, you might be in the vicinity when the owner comes back and can't figure out WHY his bike won't start. :rolleyes:
They never think of checking the kill switch, because they didn't flip it. :D

.
Click to expand...

STEVE, I can't believe you would do that to Fellow Goldwing owners.

Anyway I may have stumbled on a solution. I came across this GS650G wiring diagram for Australian models and it seems that the O/W wire from the fuse goes directly to the R/H light switch and is wired in between the starter button and the kill switch, so there is 12v being supplied to both when the ign sw is in the ON position.

The blue hi-lite shows the power from fuse to R/H handlebar switch and the yellow shows the power from starter button to solenoid and the other yellow hi-lite shows other side of kill sw going to coils and igniter.

So it appears the starter can be cranked with the kill sw in the OFF position on the 650 models, although most other GS models seem to be wired through the kill sw first so the starter will not operate unless the kill sw is in the ON position.

3.jpg



As often happens I may have answered my own question.
 
Last edited:
When I first read title, I assumed someone had done one of the starter clutch protection mods. Get it spinning, then use the kill switch to turn on the spark.
 
Dogma said:
When I first read title, I assumed someone had done one of the starter clutch protection mods. Get it spinning, then use the kill switch to turn on the spark.
Click to expand...

No, No need for that. The "little" 650 motor hasn't learnt how to spin backwards yet. Only the big boys can do that.
 
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