Just asking for some opinion on my 97 GS 500

[davesgs]

Hi all, just signed in tho' been reading for a while.  Let me tell you about my 97 GS, been a good work horse until recently it won't start, it makes this clickyty click noise.  I did a search here for some faq's and did find some - best one i found was to get a new battery, however, i already have a new one (about a few months old), just to make sure I borrowed a friend's bike so i can use his battery, but I still get the clickyty click noise and found that it comes from a relay.  Do I need to change this relay or perhaps there is still something I'm missing?  Thanks for you good people out there.  Cheers.

[rockstar]

if you try and good battery and your connections at the battery are tight. what you want to do is a voltage drop test. to test resistence in the ground and pos. portion of the circuit. on cars, a lot of times forgetting to put back on a ground or loose battery connections causes a clicking.

[DoD#i]

Easy check.

Take a wrench or a screwdriver and short the relay in question (I'm assuming it is the starter relay - the one with the big screw terminals) - umm, have the bike in a state where cranking it is safe, first - neutral, clutch in, that sort of thing - put on the ignition and choke if you want to start it while you are testing.

If it starts, or at least cranks, you can be pretty sure that the relay is the problem, though there's still a small possibility that a connection is not clean and tight.

If it doesn't crank, you need to suspect poor connections, or that you battery has problems even though it's newish, though you appear to have addressed this question, just not to the point of completely eliminating it IMHO.

[davesgs]

Thanks all, well to completely eliminate any battery issues, I got a new one, well guess what - no more clickyty click this time just a click and no crank.  I tightened all battery terminals just to make sure, after about 3 attempts I just stopped and noticed that the negative terminal was pretty hot - any thoughts on this?  Thanks again.

[yamahonkawazuki]

trace the neg cable route, see if anythign else is amiss with it

[rockstar]

Thanks all, well to completely eliminate any battery issues, I got a new one, well guess what - no more clickyty click this time just a click and no crank.  I tightened all battery terminals just to make sure, after about 3 attempts I just stopped and noticed that the negative terminal was pretty hot - any thoughts on this?  Thanks again.

did you change your battery cables with one of a smaller diameter?

[the mole]

Too much current flowing=shorted starter??
My theory is that with the old battery, the high current passing through the starter caused a large voltage drop on the old battery and the solenoid would drop out, hence clicking noise (just like when the battery goes flat). With the new battery there's enough power to keep the solenoid engaged, so no clicking, but hot cables. Check the starter!

[davesgs]

Well, I got it all figured out after doing most of the recommendations given here, seems like the problem was the starter solenoid/relay.  I wired the battery directly to the starter and it cranked.  Thank you all for your help.  Cheers.