XJ550 - no start

well, got it all back together yesterday. charged the battery fully, put it in, turned the key, hit the start button - and nothing.

lights work - turn, brake, running. neutral indicator comes on in neutral. kick stand relay clicks when kick stand switch is operated. starter safety relay works (measured 12v on both r/w wires). clutch switch is working.

tested the start relay - +12v to red side, neg to blue side (can't remember the strip colors - in the house now). measured open before connecting, measured closed after applying voltage. jumped the leads, and starter turns.

I have two starter buttons - one confirmed to work before I took the bike apart - the other unknown. neither work. If I understand the diagram correctly, when the button is pushed the blue side gets grounded?

Obviously I must be missing something, but what?

any help for a very frustrated person would be greatly appreciated!

Doug

EDIT: I did take the ignition switch apart to clean the contacts. I tested it afterwards, and once the bike was back together. +12 where expected...

 

Simply unplug the "safety" relay to completely eliminate that whole fiasco from the equation. (That takes all of the stuff; clutch switch, neutral switch, sidestand switch and relay offline.)

You may have a bad "solenoid" (starter relay.) There is a frustrating phenomenon that can occur with old relays and switches: it may pass enough current to make the meter happy but not enough to do its JOB. Been bit by that one more than once.

 

Doug,

If you haven't seen it yet, Gamuru wrote up an excellent guide on testing your starting circuit:

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=7828.html

There's also the XJ electrical page. You might want to save a local copy, I think geocities is going the way of the dodo.

C$

 

THANKS!

It turned out to be two issues
1. the starter button was not working on either assembly. I took one apart, cleaned the contacts and put it back together.

2. intermittent connection at the start button connector under the tank. cleaned the pins and applied some dielectric grease.

The combination of the two problems made it difficult to isolate. Gamuru's write up would have gotten me there a lot quicker - very nice write up!

Thanks again!
Doug