New Bike, New Rider, Need Help Please!

I just bought a 1981 xj550 from a guy on craigslist, and in my excitement at owning my first bike, took it out for a quick ride the same day. Everything worked fine with the exception of the left indicator, which simply turned on and didn't flash. As I got back to my house it started to rain, and in my haste to get my new purchase under cover, I forgot to take the key out of the ignition until about 30 minutes later. As I somewhat expected, the battery was dead the next day, and since I didn't have a charger, I decided to jump it from my car. When I did, and attempted to start the bike, I heard a clicking sound which I assume was the starter motor engaging, but the engine wouldn't start. I bought a charger and charged the battery, and tried again today. The same thing happened, but after about a minute of trying to start the battery was dead.

I'm sure I need a new battery, as this one won't hold a charge for longer than a minute. But if that's the only thing wrong, I don't understand why the bike wouldn't start when I was jumping it from the car battery.

I guess my question at this point is this: could I have damaged something in the electrical system by jumping it from the car battery, and if so, what did I damage?

 

Hi, so long as you didn't cross the + & - leads / terminals, no harm would ensue. The clicking sounds more like a poor connection, if it was the starter clutch jumping, well, you don't want to go there.
With the indicator, first check if one of the bulbs are bad, before we get into relays.
& welcome, Wiz.

 

Unless you hooked it up backwards you shouldn't have damaged anything. Even that should not damage the cranking circuit.

You need to check your fuses and fuse panel. The stock fuse panel was weak on day one and 29 years hasn't done it any good. Next step will be to go through the connections and components and find your problem.

A known good battery and a tender type charger will greatly assist your efforts.

You need to get the service manual (our member Chacal sells them and most any part you could possibly need), and a volt/ohm meter and start diagnosing.

 

yep sure would help to have a new battery, to eliminate the rhino in the room. Also since no one else mentioned it yet, have you taken the plugs out to see what they look like? Are you getting spark to all the cylinders? It also could very well be a starter issue, but i would first try new battery, and new plugs if the current ones look iffy. Keep us posted. You will find so much of knowledge on this site, and will keep your new bike going for a long time. Let us know what you find.

Kevin

 

You didn't mention it but did you smell a strong gas smell?

Seeing this is your first bike and you don't really know its history, are you sure the petcock didn't leak and flood the engine and hydrolock it with gas.

Just for the heck of it pull the plugs and try and start it like you normally would. You'll know if its hydrolocked the gas will shoot out the plug holes so don't do it near fire etc.

 

The clicking is probably a poor connection on your jumper leads. Make sure your cables are getting a rock solid connection (it can be a pain with some jumpers due to their bulk).

 

Ok, so today I took a look at the fuse panel and it really is a mess. The brackets were rusting and brittle, so I connected the wires directly and put the fuses (which look brand new) aside for now. It helped a bit, but still wasn't running. I noticed that the bike was low on oil, so I filled it up and tried again with a freshly charged battery. This time, it sounded like it was trying to start. Everything electrical seemed to work fine; I could hear the starter motor spinning, and the engine sputtered a few times, but wouldn't catch on to a constant idle.

I tried pulling the spark plugs but didn't have the right socket (i'm still looking for one). They look new from the outside, but I assume that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Is this most likely a spark plug issue?

 

I would check the plugs for good measure. I had the same problem and it was just bad plugs. But it could really be anything electrical these bikes are old. If i were you i would invest in a multimeter it came in real handy and saved me from spending a lot of cash on unneeded parts..

 

when you use a car to jump start a motorcycle don't keep your car running because it might damage bike's electric circuit.
the other thing is that maybe just the bike is flooded, change the spark plugs and see what happens.
In my bike when the battery is almost dead, the indicators don't flash they stay steady on.

 

I just had the battery tested and, to my surprise, it's working fine. I pulled the plugs and nothing at all happened when I tried to start it. No spark, no fuel, nothing. The plugs look used, but not worn or damaged or anything. I'm thinking of replacing the caps and/or wires, since everything else seems to be in working order.

 

I would get a voltmeter/multimeter, manual and check voltages, fuses.
I got one from pepboys for 4 or 5$, cheap and useful.

 

Ok, so we push-started the bike today, and it ran like a dream after that. We killed the engine and started it up a minute later with no problem either. But half an hour later I tried to start it and it was back to the same old problem. Bad alternator, perhaps?

 

Why couldn't you get it to start? Dead battery? Did it crank?

 

Maybe not a BAD Alternator, ... but you should at the very least, check the Brushes.

Easy job. Quick. Uncomplicated.

Measure their length.
The Limit is 10mm.

 

Try jumping the starter relay.

If the bike is running fine by push starting it then its definitely in starting circuit.

Keep it simple try the basics first.

If your hearing the clicking and you get a red dash light on its either the starter relay or the starter button.

Try jumping the starter relay first. Take a look at the starter button also could be a loose or corroded wire.

 

EVERY bike I've ever owned (and that's a few) has made a clicking noise when there isn't enough juice getting to the starter motor or the starter motor is u/s.


First.. Put the fuses back in.. They're there for a reason, and if you have a straight through connection without them, you're liable to fry something while you hunt around. Either that, or grab some car fuses and wire them in, they aren't expensive.. But get a breaker circuit in there before this starts to get dead expensive.

On my current XJ, the previous owner hadn't bothered topping up the water in the battery, this meant that if you bump started the bike, it ran like a dream. The battery held JUST enough charge to restart the bike a couple of times and then there was no charge. when fully charged, the battery tested ok. Sound familiar?

I topped my battery up with distilled water and it now holds a charge, I wasn't expecting it to, but distilled water is $2 a litre, and a new battery is $100 here (cos you pay for recycling the old one when you buy a new one) so I saved the environment and my wallet.. I would suggest you take a look at th fluid levels in your battery and top it up if it's low, it might just be the answer you're looking for.