I hate my starter switch!

[jdm9123]

Hi fellas, I recently completed a top end re-build on my motor. I begin to re-assemble everything and put the motor back in the bike. Everything appears to be going fine until I try the starter button to turn the motor over to check my ignition timing. I push it and nothing happens. Mind you this is the second time I have had this problem. I also have two wiring harnesses for my bike. The one it came with, and one I bought off of mikesxs. I decided to put the new harness on the bike in the mean time to see if it would cure the problem. Tac, and speedo lights work, brake/tail lights work, signals work, ignition switch works, headlight (high/low) all work but again no starter button. I just push it and nothing happens. There is one dark blue wire coming out of my starter switch housing that I believe to be the one wire I cannot find a proper home for. It has battery voltage when I turn the key on and when i turn the key off if i press and depress the starter button my meter goes up and down in sequence with my pushing so therefore I know it is tied to the button. I have plugged this dark blue wire into about everything available in my headlight bucket and have blown 4 headlight fuses in the process. I think this wire needs a ground but I have tried to plug it into one with no luck. This is very frustrating and I cannot figure this out please help!!

 

[jdm9123]

well, now I am even more confused...the dark blue wire I spoke of goes from 2.9 VDC to battery voltage when i switch the lights on and off with the key on...I don't know where it's suppose to go but I still feel like it is part of my problem since it has no home.

 

[gggGary]

There are a red white and a blue white wire at the starter solenoid, the red white has to have 12 volts, the blue white wire is grounded to the handlebar by the starter button, the handle bar has to be grounded to the frame, it was done a couple of different ways over the years. So ground the blue white wire at the solenoid. does that work? Then ground it in the headlight bucket then inside the handlebar switch. process of elimination points to the problem. The button it's self can be funky or rusted.

 

[jdm9123]

thanks gary, the handlebars weren't grounding to the frame properly. I fixed it rather quickly after I knew what to look for.

 

[jchrisk1]

Mine doesn't work either. But I have learned to love the kickstart so I don't care anymore. I hated the kickstart too, before I put the Pamco in. Now it's one kicks. I think I may fix my push button this winter though.

 

[XSLeo]

One thing about the starter switch, it grounds the same way as the horn button.
Any time the start button won't work, the horn button often won't work either.
The earlier models had a ground path from the bars, through the risers, on the bottom of the risers they hooked a wire under one riser nut. They ran this wire around to one of the upper tree clamp bolts. From the upper tree, ground went through the stem, to the bearings to the frame, then through the frame to where the ground wire of the battery, to battery.
Somewhere along around 78 they changed the ground path, from that to a wire run from the left side switch housing down into the harness ground inside the headlight bucket to frame ground under the tank, through frame to battery.
In either set up the horn and starter buttons ground to the bars.
If you replace the stock bars with painted or powder coated bars you loose this ground path, on the later models the horn still works but the starter won't.
So the first thing you want to check if the tart button won't work is to see if the horn works. If neither works you have lost the ground to the bars, if painted or P/C'ed then remove some of the paint or P/C to get a good metal to metal contact between the switch housings and bars. this should fix the ground, easy to check, use the 200 ohm scale on your meter and check for continuity between the switch housings and battery negative.
Once you get that then check for power to the starter relay, as gggGary said the red/white at the relay should carry battery voltage, the blue/white goes to te start button. If you have power at the red/white just jump from blue/white to ground and the starter should work.
If not there are other problems. This is more answer than you need seeing as you fixed it, but others might like reading this.
Leo