81' XJ 550 Seca

Good morning fellow riders!

I've recently acquired the rare 81 white 550 Seca for a great deal on marketplace. Only missing 1 side cover the rest is complete.

However, upon getting a fresh battery hooked up, the bike will not turn over, won't even crank. I get no sound from the relay, and nothing coming from the starter. I did a little troubleshooting myself and decided to jump the solenoid, and she cranked no problem! All fuses are good even with the original fusebox intact. Connections look decent. Should I be looking at the starter/kill switch assembly? Or in a different direction? I've done my fair share of work on my 81 750, but was graced with no electrical issues on that, so this is new territory. And advice or help would be awesome!

Thanks in advance!

 

Hey Jae,

I found the factory service manual to be a huge help when I had my “no crank” issue. Mine ended up being corrosion in the right hand controls.

The service manuals can be found free online and will walk you through what to check step by step.

Please post pictures of your bike if possible. I’d love to see it!

 

9 times out of 10 a no-crank issue on my 750 Seca comes down to the sidestand switch sticking. Happens if left on the sidestand instead of the center stand for a prolonged period. Second place to suspect is the kill/starter switch. I had to clean mine out when I acquired the bike in 95, but not since. Good luck.

 

Very sorry for the 5 month delay. The project took a backburner for a minute. So my question is, if the bike is in neutral the side stand relay won't matter correct? I remember not having one on my 750 for the initial refurbishment of it, and don't recall any issues. However, the inside of the start button is clean as a whistle. Not corrosion or anything of the sort. Which has me even more perplexed.

 

The 550 and 650 (except Turbo) models create the ground circuit for the starter solenoid (which pushing the START button is supposed to do) thru the handlebars,, so any corrosion (or, if someone painted or powdercoated the bars) can prevent the ground circuit from actually be created. An easy test for this issue is to use an appropriate gauge (say,14- or 12-guage wire) and run it from the battery negative terminal to the control switch body and then push the start button.......if it now works, then you know it's a grounding issue.

2nd: jumping across the solenoid terminals will ALWAYS get power to the starter motor, because you've basically created a direct "wire" to the battery positive terminal, and is no indication that the solenoid is actuall y "working" (even if there is no problem with the pushbutton circuit/grounding issue).

You are correct that the neutral position should not matter in regards to the sidestand switch/relay, but of course relays can fail and you have to make sure that the neutral position switch is actually working (the green "NEUTRAL" light on the dash should be illuminated when the bike is in neutral). Neutral positions sensors can go bad.

3rd: the starter motor could be dead, or have a dead spot that the brushes randomly land on and gives the appearance of a problem "further up the line". The starter motor can be tested independently either on teh bike (make sure it's in neutral!) or off the bike with a set of jumper cables with a known good battery.