Starting click and then no juice

[kerrfunk]

Hey there.
Electricity is one of those things I have such a hard time understanding, no matter how many times it's explained. I'm just glad there are people who get it.

I went to ride the other day. Turned the key on, I'm in neutral, put the clutch in, turned the switch to on, and hit the starter.

Click.

No power.

Jiggling the battery seemed to help, but every time I got juice and repeated the process, click, no power.

I had a problem like this on a different bike like 6 years ago, and I'm 80% sure it's the solenoid, the thing mounted to the frame behind the battery. Which is an easy replacement.

Does that sound right?

 

[Guest]

jump the solenoid with a screwdriver or something and see what happens

 

[kerrfunk]

jump the solenoid with a screwdriver or something and see what happens

Same thing. Click no juice.

 

[Gorminrider]

Be careful of any fuel when "jumping"/shorting the solenoid.

"jumping" the two large bolts on the solenoid with a screwdiver is a direct connection between battery and starter motor. No switches, fuses or solenoids are involved. If this fails, your battery, the cables or the starter is at fault. Not the solenoid.

If you see no sparks at all, jumping/shorting the solenoid, you battery or the cable from it is truly thrashed. Try another cable. and/or
try another battery. A carbattery will do in place of...

 

[rphillips]

Did you take the batt. cables off & clean them, or just jiggle the batt. Jiggling the batt. won't fix a bad connection. Just my opinion.

 

[kerrfunk]

Okay. This makes me think it's a cable thing, not a solenoid thing. Thank you.

 

[wymple]

May turn out to be the starter itself. I just rebuilt mine, cost me a twenty for the brush kit. Any halfway mechanic can do it, call a buddy & buy a six-pack.

 

[rphillips]

He says, after the "click" loses all power, to me sounds like a bad connection, not like a solenoid nor starter, they would click, but shouldn't kill the power

 

[fastbysuzuki]

If jiggling the battery improves it then it sounds like a bad connection check both your battery terminals and cables are sound, clean and are tight.
Do the quick tast for the battery.

 

[cowboyup3371]

What are the voltages on the battery Kerry? Run through the first three items of the quick test - key off, key on no start, and key on push start (will want a helper probably)

 

[kerrfunk]

Battery is a couple months new
and I don't have a voltmeter.
And electricity is Greek to me.
Although, I do know some Greek.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Umm, okay, won't just let me quote needs letters too

Battery is a couple months new - Age means nothing :wink:
and I don't have a voltmeter.Can pick one up from Harbor Freight for less than $10
And electricity is Greek to me. Same Here
Although, I do know some Greek.How do you say Hello/goodbye in Greek?

 

[hannibal]

Also consider the ground side. On my GS, the starter is grounded through the case to a large wire from the top of the transmission case back to the battery. I also had grounding issues from the solenoid, but this doesn't sound like an issue for you.

 

[Redman]

Kerry,

any update??

.
when you say “click no juice”,
do you mean click and everything goes dark?
or
do you mean click but starter doesn’t grunt nor turn engine??

 

[Redman]

If getting a multimeter seems like it presents too much more to have to figure out: I recommend getting a test light probe.

is a lot easier to understand, and is good for troubleshooting where completely loose power.

 

[Guest]

Had the same problem lately and discovered that by flipping the run/ off switch a few times it will engage. Planning to take that apart this winter and clean the connections. Bike was in a heavy rainstorm a few days before and the contacts might need some cleaning and lubricating with dielectric grease. One thing if you are planning on taking this one apart.... wrap it up with a plastic baggie and poke a screwdriver through the baggie so you dont lose the little springs in there. There is a tutorial on here somewhere that I had to look up to put it all back together.

 

[Rob S.]

...wrap it up with a plastic baggie and poke a screwdriver through the baggie so you dont lose the little springs in there.

Cool tip. Never heard it before, but I'll definitely file it away.

 

[Brendan W]

Have you the lead acid battery and if so what's the electrolyte level like?
If it's low, topping off will wet more plate and increase it's output and may be a sign of overcharging.
What r/r have you got?

 

[kerrfunk]

Sorry to leave you all in the dark.
I figured out what the problem was a week or two ago but didn't put the half-hour of work into fixing it until this afternoon.

The problem was wiring, and the wiring problem was my own jerry-rigging.

See here for the report but long story short, five months ago I was on the road and I needed a new battery on the fly. I received one that worked, but the pos and neg were oriented differently, so I rigged up little extension wires to get the terminals hooked up right.

One of those connections got loose on me.

And I re-rigged it today.

Did I get the new proper battery?
It wouldn't be an interesting story if I did, now, would it?

 

[rphillips]

This is kind'f funny, I went back & read the orig. thread. Your question was, what do I do with my backwards battery? 4 people responded, all 4 advised "Get the correct batt." What did you do??? Sounds like what I may have done. I'll bet I'm not laughing at you, I'll bet I'm laughing with you. Glad you found it cheap & simple.