Hi everyone. I have a strange issue. This is not mechanical. It's 100% just the connection behind the electric start button is iffy. When I press down, sometimes it doesn't do anything. I might see the dash lights flicker or I hear a click coming from around the battery/starter, but it doesn't crank. Or sometimes I press it and it does.

I tried getting a Q tip and swabbing the inside. That didn't help.

I'm not sure the best way to approach this. Do I remove the contacts and swab them with contact cleaner? Is it my spring? It doesn't really have much tension. Should I buy a new part? I feel like I can maybe get it to work if I fudge around with the red button... pushing it up a bit or down a bit... but I don't feel comfortable riding it like this. Fotunately, I can always use the screwdriver-starter relay trick.

TIps??

Honestly from what you just described, it sounds more like a bad relay or starter to me. What makes you think it is 100% the button and there is no chance of anything else?

If the dash lights dim, and the starter clicks, then the button is doing its job. Someone else on that workforce is taking an unauthorized vacation. Find em and give em the boot.

      YOU are the CEO of Ride and Smile industries. Mr. Button is one of your many direct subordinates. He has a seat next to Mr. Throttle, and compared to Mr. Throttle, Mr. Button is a pretty low energy guy. Mr. Button is kindly old fellow who is reliable and usually gets the job done without much hassle, so you keep him around.   
     Now, as CEO your job is to maintain stability and keep the factory on track. You are far too busy to run this factory yourself. So you tell Mr. Button "Dear sir, it is time to start the factory, will you ever so swiftly pass the message on for me?" Mr. Button, without a word, sends a kindly, low energy message on to middle management.
     At Ride and Smile industries, middle management of the start up division is Mr. Relay. Now Mr. Relay is usually a dependable worker. However, he can sometimes be a bit cantankerous. Sometimes cantankerous to point that the only way to start the factory is to go around him alltogether. He receives the low energy message from Mr. Button and, already frustrated with output numbers for the month, send a brash higher energy message down to the piss-ons in the basement at the starter line.
     The team down in the starter line are a really tight nit group, and in my personal opinion, must be on drugs. Again, a usually dependable group of folks, likely because of the drugs, but oftentimes when one of them goes on strike, it is simpler to just replace the whole team. In some cases, at other factories, Mr. Relay will usually be ousted with them.

The moral of this story, be nice to Mr. Button, and don't do drugs.

GS parts are so cheap still, I usually just opt to replace parts with an eBay component. What is the screwdriver starter relay method? Sounds like it confirms that the problem is the button.

The screwdriver method is usually a way to bypass a bad solenoid or relay. Basically it sends power straight to the starter, which is what the relay should do.

I am doubling down on it not being the button. My guess is relay.

Or, given a few other posts I have read from this person, faulty wiring. But relay is my first choice.

very very very interesting replies... thank you all.

i never really thought it would the starter relay, simply because i  wouldn't expect it to act in such an erratic fashion -- I assumed it either goes or doesn't.

also @Flameeater, yes, I will try to avoid blaming the first man i see. and avoiding drugs.

It could still be the starter, however, since you seem confident that you can make the starter work correctly by bypassing the relay. Relay would be my first guess.

I my many years I have seen both Relays and Starters act the way you describe. I have had to tap on starters with hammers, straight wire buttons to starters, use the screwdriver trick.... and so on.

The button is either making contact or it is not. The clicking that you hear under the seat is telling me that the relay is getting the message, but either isnt sending it onward, or the starter may have dead spots.