starter won't turn after a good cleaning...

Hello to all, this is my first cruiser and I think I'm already getting rubbed the wrong way from a relay or just my stupidity. I'm excited about being a member and look forward to helping the best I can.

I got my new bike home w/ 23,000 miles and took some things apart for a good cleaning. batterbox, couldn't get the airbox out, and the electronics opposite the battery, and changed the clutch cable. First of all, I tried finding the problem in older posts and see there should be a clutch switch to a relay, my cluch perch has absoultely no wires going to it, so maybe that's something... When I looked at the bike we jumpstarted it and it would only stay running with the choke on, so I bought it cause it's near mint. Now I put everything back together and when I turn the key on, the taillight comes on, signals work, horn works, brakelight only works for rear, and only the green light comes on the cluster. I got nothing to the headlight, other lights on cluster, and the starter won't turn.

Any thoughts???

 

from what i have heard the switch on the perch is for starting the bike in gear
i took mine off and it starts fine

brake light only works for rear? pedal?

 

The clutch switch is only to allow you to start it in gear, and only if the sidestand is up. As long as the neutral light (green) is on, that shouldn't be the problem. There is a sidestand switch AND a sidestand relay, as well as the safety relay itself. The easiest way to troubleshoot that whole mess is to temporarily unplug the safety relay.

Someone with a 650 Seca will have to tell you where it is.

You won't have headlight until it's running. That's normal.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah the brake light only works with the rear pedal. I don't see ANYTHING in the front bulb, all 4 fuses are good.

 

Yamaman, welcome to the site. a couple of questions, does your solenoid click when you try to start it? are you still jumping it off another battery or are you on the bike's battery? if your solenoid is clicking try taping the end of the starter with a hammer handle. i tore down my starter during my restore & had to tap mine a few times. i beleive it was due to the brushes reseating themselves after tear down, it is crankning every time. your issue with not running except on choke is a good sign you need to pull your carbs & clean, clean, clean. there is a great how to in the faq section, lots of tips & info. good luck & someone on here will get you going.

 

awesome, thanks Gregg. Well I went at it again and after a long charge it turned over so then it was running but I wasn't sure the two right cylynders were firing because only the left had smoke and the right exhaust air was cool while the left exhaust air was warm, check for spark and it was all good. then i changed the plugs. Got it going a little more and was finally able to give it some gas after it got a little warm. Then I took the charger off and the lights got dimm and the idle came down, put it back on and it was a little better...

I guess you're right, I gotta yank the carbs and CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN.

I'm going to look for a 'how to' now on how to take the carbs off cause I couldn't get the airbox off this afternoon to save my life. THANKS!!!

 

i good, you have progress. i don't know if the seca is similar to the xj650 but if it is you have to loosen the retainer clamps from your air intake boots & shove them back into the airbox, they will only go as far as where the retainer clamps fit on the boots. then you can loosen the intake boots form the carbs to the eng & pull the rack out. be sure you have removed the enrichment (choke) cable & the throttle cable. easiest to come out the left side of bike. i am assuming this will work for your seca as well. if i am wrong someone else chim in. also it is pretty obvious you need to invest in a new battery. also if you are startin it while you have the charger attached i don't think that is good for the battery. i used a car battery to jump mine off when i was going thru my starting issues. i also discovered that if there isn't enough gas in the tank the bike will run on 2 or 3 cyl not all four. i found this out during my starting issues, had it running one time but no heat in 3 or 4 headers. i was sick, but for some reason I looked at my fuel filter & it was empty. a lesson learned. another tip, if you haven't put an inline fuel filter on your bike yet be sure & do that. 1 it lets you know you have fuel flow & 2 it's extra protection to assure you are getting clean fuel to your carbs
good luck & keep the questions coming till you got it right.

 

You won't get the airbox out in one piece and really don't need to. There is a provision for the airbox to loosen up and move back about 3/8" and that coupled with getting the carb-airbox boots out of the way will give enough clearance to pull the rack. The recommended tool (thanks RickCoMatic) is a wooden hammer handle to pry the rack out of the boots.

These bikes have the unique capability of having enough juice to spin the motor but not fire the ignition if the battery isn't fully charged. If the battery won't stay charged, that should be your first investment. OOPS sorry, second investment. Get a service manual first.

 

Ok boots are back, carbs are on the bench and apart. Now I'm following 'Clean Your Own Carb's - The Whole 9 Yards - by: Rick Massey' so i just got back home w/ my muffin pans lol. 3 of the carbs looked good but only one was gummy, the float barely moved cause the hingepin was so gummed and the needle valve under the float bowl was stuck. We'll see. I'll let you guys know!

 

another how to on carbs was done by Chacal, our parts guru. look at the vendor/supplier section under forums & read/print his how to called,
"in the church of clean" it is all about cleaning carbs, parts needed. it is good read to go with Ricko's post as well. keep us posted on your progress.

 

ok so its all done, i found one carb gummy but that's it. Yamaha was closed today so I couldn't replace any Orings, I would have liked to replace the ones on the fuel rails. So it all ran the same hahahaha, then I sprayed the startin fluid in the airbox and it immediately picked up, so I came out another half turn on the pilots and vwala (i know there's a real spelling of that word). So the bike likes 4 out or 4.25 OUT unlike the standard 2.5 the cleaning section said. But it backfires a little and i hear some surging in the carbs and a little smoke is coming out, so I know there's more tuning to go. I'm going to look for the tuning section now, which me luck!

 

excellent, now that 4 turns out sounds like alot. does your sec have the stock exhaust or is it a performance aftermarket? if it's stock you are to far out. RickOMatic did a post how plug chops, do a search in the forums for plug chops or plug read. initially you can do it in your drive way. you will be looking at the color of your plug insulators below the electrode. find those post & you will see what i'm talking about. keep it up you are gatting there.