Hallo, this is a problem i've had for a while now but havn't sussed out yet and is taken from a previous post of mine.

Basically I have chargin problems which may or may not have any bearing on this problem.

Right, so bike is in neutral on side stand. I pop the key, pull the clutch in and hit the button and single, sharp click noise is heard (starter relay switching?) bike fails to turn over. If i keep hammering the starter button it eventually turns over and starts. This happens even after a full battery charge :S

90% sure your starter relay needs replacement. If you play with it, and it eventually starts, most likely the relay. As long as the starter turns over you know it could be nothing else, outside of a dying battery, which you've already fully charged.

Starter relay x2.

hey how much is a starter relay and how do i check it causei  think i might have the same problem  

it avoids me how to properly check these, but they can run anywhere from $15-50, depending on which one you need. You'd have to ask a parts place honestly.

I've always tested by bypassing the relay and wiring the starter to the battery directly, lets me see if the starter will turn the bike over.

Yeah. Disconnect starter lead (wire that runs from relay to top of starter).  With bike in neutral and ignition off, short from positive terminal to the starter bolt that the lead was attached to with a piece of heavy gauge wire (household 3 wire cable twisted together will work).

Hold for a couple of revolutions, you want to make sure that it can go thru a couple of compression strokes. If it still bogs down, then its your battery.  Old batteries don't have the cranking amps under load, even though they have adequate volts on a meter.

I would bet on it being the battery. Starter relays rarely go bad. Or rather, they either "click" and work or don't click and don't work (and then its usually a bad connector somewhere else).

this is a dumb and almost rhetorical question, but is there any way a starter relay could cause the bike to quit while running?

something on my bike is getting hot and causing it to stop running. the 3 wires from the stator are getting hot, but IDK what it could do to make it stop working. (LINK) and when it does die it gives a click, but it doesnt sound like the click is coming from the starter....

funny you should mention that. I have been working with a friend to get an old 82 xj550 running that someone BASTARDIZED in every sense of the word. Guy before us bought it for his youngest to ride. After hours and hours of electrical diagnostics and mechanical woes, I'm wondering how this kid still has all his appendages. Its a rolling deathtrap, for real.

I digress.. anyway.. long story short, we get the thing to crank over, and it runs.. then after like 2 minutes the starter kicks in.. WHILE ITS RUNNING.. we freak out and pull wires off till it starts. The starter relay leaks voltage, then opens to power the starter while the bike is running. Needless to say we replaced the relay, and added a killswitch.


if anything is getting hot... somthing isn't right. The only time wires should "ligitimately" get warm, is when you're pulling a lot of amps through them, say to the starter. if you're wire is of small gauge, it will get hot, and possibly melt. Thats why cars and big trucks use large battery terminals.

You might want to check the conenction between the stator and wherever it goes on the bike. i have no experience. Something is not working right.

Battery is new so the problem cant lay there, although if it really is starter relay it really will put the turd icing on the crap cake that is my bike... could anything except from poor workmanship cause the alternator and the starter relay to go at the same time? Im pretty sure theres an earth fault somewhere too...

Okaaaay so i managed to kill my bike outside of work...


I forgot the instructions here about disconnecting wires and stuff and went ahead like this....

Big insulated screwdriver to short the two wires on the starter relay, bike cranked and started. All good, I tried once more and went back to finish me lunch break.

Home time! turn the ignition on and nothing lit up, controls all dead. I had my battery off for a 4 hour top up charge cos of the charging probs on the bike so the battery is considered ok. Fuse on the starter relay was screwed (i would assume from me dicking around and shorting the relay?). replaced the fuse and still nothing.

Does anyone know how terminal this could be?

i have the very same problem lol... cept i havnt tried to do anyhting wit the relay =/ but ive been push starting the bike ... and it wudnt start up after a ride.. or sometimes it does after a few tries  so is ur fuse blown? 

if electrical issues are your only problem, then you're still doin pretty good. Like I mentioned in my crazy tangent, I spent almost a month and a half ripping through my friends wiring harness. I would begin with buying a new starter relay, its worth it to replace. After that... just work your way from front to back, checking for any loose connections. your starter works, so theres less money you have to spend right there.

Quote from: remo2k9 on May 07, 2010, 06:24:48 AM
i have the very same problem lol... cept i havnt tried to do anyhting wit the relay =/ but ive been push starting the bike ... and it wudnt start up after a ride.. or sometimes it does after a few tries  so is ur fuse blown? 

Quote from: Lifeforce99 on May 07, 2010, 05:52:45 AM
Fuse on the starter relay was screwed (i would assume from me ducking around and shorting the relay?). replaced the fuse and still nothing.

Yes, unless you know of another interpretation of the word screwed?

Quote from: burnymcstalls on May 07, 2010, 08:19:25 AM
if electrical issues are your only problem, then you're still doin pretty good. Like I mentioned in my crazy tangent, I spent almost a month and a half ripping through my friends wiring harness. I would begin with buying a new starter relay, its worth it to replace. After that... just work your way from front to back, checking for any loose connections. your starter works, so theres less money you have to spend right there.

Please dont... I'll cry if it comes to that as my bike is/was my only mode of transportation... Its only two freaking years old as well! Alternator, earth fault, starter relay and now my monkeying about have cause death :S

hmm... =[ dam i feel ya this is my only transportation too , and today jst dropped my gf off....  my clutch cable snapped

Because im so freaking awesome I fixed my bike  

What I did.... replaced the starter relay fuse (had to give the first replacement back to my work friend as it was from his car) then plugged the green plug back over the fuse and hey presto, instrument lights and easy starting!!! the battery was even being charged! (tested it with multimeter- was between 13-14.5V when running

My theory:
I had an earth fault in my headlight that cropped up the same night my girlfriend broke down on her moped. I stopped off before i got to her at a supermarket petrol station and began dismantling things hoping to find a simple problem [fuse, connector etc?] I know i got as close to removing the rear plasic as one can with an incomplete OEM toolkit and I remember messing with what I now know to be the starter relay. So i figure I didn't plug the green connector/fuse cover properly which somehow affected my charging circuit AND the relay itself leading to flat battery and my single click issue....

Although Im happy as a pig in muck that i have my bike back on the drive I would love to hear everyones two cents on my theory just in case there may still be an underlying problem that has yet to rear its ugly head


Remo:
Check all the connections on your starter relay, get some electrical contact cleaner/wd40/gt-85 and have a spray up on all the plugs to make them good and rust free as well as prevent rust in the future. If everything is clean and well connected it limits the problems to parts and not wiring

Quote from: Lifeforce99 on May 08, 2010, 04:38:41 PM
Because im so freaking awesome I fixed my bike  

What I did.... replaced the starter relay fuse (had to give the first replacement back to my work friend as it was from his car) then plugged the green plug back over the fuse and hey presto, instrument lights and easy starting!!! the battery was even being charged! (tested it with multimeter- was between 13-14.5V when running

My theory:
I had an earth fault in my headlight that cropped up the same night my girlfriend broke down on her moped. I stopped off before i got to her at a supermarket petrol station and began dismantling things hoping to find a simple problem [fuse, connector etc?] I know i got as close to removing the rear plasic as one can with an incomplete OEM toolkit and I remember messing with what I now know to be the starter relay. So i figure I didn't plug the green connector/fuse cover properly which somehow affected my charging circuit AND the relay itself leading to flat battery and my single click issue....

Although Im happy as a pig in muck that i have my bike back on the drive I would love to hear everyones two cents on my theory just in case there may still be an underlying problem that has yet to rear its ugly head


Remo:
Check all the connections on your starter relay, get some electrical contact cleaner/wd40/gt-85 and have a spray up on all the plugs to make them good and rust free as well as prevent rust in the future. If everything is clean and well connected it limits the problems to parts and not wiring

just wanted to echo your cool post about picking up a girlfriend on her moped... <--- coolness


and say, check your heavy POS and NEG leads. those things can corrode inside the insulation, and leave you with very similar symptoms. mine did, was a $8 fix, and a real pain to realize how long i'd just prayed the bike didn't die (with me) while passing a truck.

Well... I destroyed my relay

It was all corroded around the bolts that hold the +/- wires on so I thought "Ill whip it off and have a clean!"

Then I thought "maybe its corroded inside a little and is messing with its electromechanical goodness?"

Yeah... it wasnt too bad inside to be honest, but I broke a wire on the inside so had to rewind it and then resolder the wires on... i need a new soldering iron, mines not hot enough to melt the solder properly so the joins were bad and messy and the whole thing didnt want to go back together... I got annoyed and gave it flying lessons across the field next door I felt better afterwards anyway!

Quote from: ohgood on May 08, 2010, 06:40:50 PM

mine did, was a $8 fix, and a real pain to realize how long i'd just prayed the bike didn't die (with me) while passing a truck.

I had the same thing getting an ignition coil fixed under warranty, both times it had to go in I came out with crushed fuel lines! First time I was going down the motorway, over taking 2 lanes of trucks with a huge 4x4 behind me when the bike cut out, needless to say when I found out what caused it I was none too polite

Quote from: remo2k9 on May 07, 2010, 06:08:11 PM
hmm... =[ dam i feel ya this is my only transportation too , and today jst dropped my gf off....  my clutch cable snapped

your only form of transportation or not, you need to make sure your bike is at 100% before you keep riding it and possibly killing yourself (and maybe even your girlfriend).
you shouldnt be giving ANYONE a ride, nor even riding it yourself, when you know issues like a faulty clutch cable is at hand. i really hope, for the sake of anyone that might care for you at all, that you get your head out your ass and fix the bike to a proper working condition. that is, unless youre hoping to turn yourself into a statistic.

Quote from: Lifeforce99 on May 10, 2010, 02:46:42 PM
Well... I destroyed my relay

It was all corroded around the bolts that hold the +/- wires on so I thought "Ill whip it off and have a clean!"

Then I thought "maybe its corroded inside a little and is messing with its electromechanical goodness?"

Yeah... it wasnt too bad inside to be honest, but I broke a wire on the inside so had to rewind it and then resolder the wires on... i need a new soldering iron, mines not hot enough to melt the solder properly so the joins were bad and messy and the whole thing didnt want to go back together... I got annoyed and gave it flying lessons across the field next door I felt better afterwards anyway!

Quote from: ohgood on May 08, 2010, 06:40:50 PM

mine did, was a $8 fix, and a real pain to realize how long i'd just prayed the bike didn't die (with me) while passing a truck.

I had the same thing getting an ignition coil fixed under warranty, both times it had to go in I came out with crushed fuel lines! First time I was going down the motorway, over taking 2 lanes of trucks with a huge 4x4 behind me when the bike cut out, needless to say when I found out what caused it I was none too polite

Do you use flux when you are soldering? It makes the solder and metal stick together. Without flux it will get messy like you described.