Hey guys I'm having a little problem. Well I just welded on my hardtail. Before that I unbolted all of the electrical components from the battery box, zip tied them together, and moved them out of the way so I could cut and weld. I just moved them back into place to put them into the fake oil tank, but now I'm getting no spark. The actual starter button on the handlebars isn't working either. I went down the line and checked every fuse and connection to make sure nothing burnt out or came unplugged, and nothing seems wrong. I know at least 2 of the pieces that were bolted to the battery box need grounded, so I held them to the frame and ran power to the power wire and straight to the starter wire. I had all of my lights and the motor was turning over, put I pulled one of the plugs and was still getting no spark. Anybody had a similar problem before or have any ideas? Anything will be appreciated, I'm excited to ride it. Thanks.
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Starting problem
- Thread starter MurphDog
- Start date
eric123
XS650 Enthusiast
TCI ignition or points?
Visegrippe
lurker extraordinaire...
Killswitch? If that's not completing the circuit you'll get neither spark nor starter. Might have pulled something loose when you moved everything off.
Posted via Mobile
Posted via Mobile
I checked every connection on the bike and I can't find anything loose. On/off switch is set to on. I checked the coils and connections and they seem fine. I'm pretty confused.
Sundie
Jabroni
Get out the voltmeter and start tracing the circuits. the problem will expose itself pretty quick.
Sundie
Jabroni
From the battery box? Have you checked continuity between the neg battery terminal and frame?
I actually just ran a set of jumper cables from a running car. The positive to the power wire and the negative to the frame of the bike. When I pulled one of the plugs and jumped the starter I'd let it turn for 15-20 second intervals. Within those 15-20 seconds of continuous turning I'd see one, maybe two sparks.
Sorry this might have gotten a little confusing. Basically what happened is my bike ran fine. I unbolted everything from the stock battery box, ripped the box out, and welded on the new hardtail. All of my wiring and components are just hanging freely, I am going to hide it all in a fake oil tank. Now the starter button isn't working, and I'm only getting 1 or 2 sparks every 20 seconds of running the starter. I went threw and checked all of the connections and everything seems fine, so I'm wondering if I need to ground some of the components that were attached to the stock battery box to get it to fire. I don't know why else it would just quit working like that, but a lot of people use these fake oil tank without grounding anything and they don't have this problem.
You're not giving much info on the bike. Its best to give the year of the bike (and the engine if its different).
The stock wiring has a ground wire that runs from the top engine mounting to the frame. Check if you have that. If not, run a black 14 gauge wire from the top motor mount ( have the terminal directly against the engine casting) to the frame (scratch off the paint so that the terminal is against bare metal). Also solder the terminals............no crimping.
Your starter motor push button needs to have a ground connection. The problem is that the handlebars are rubber mounted and not grounded. With stock wiring, the ground is supplied to the handlebars with a black wire that comes from the wiring harness inside the headlight bucket. You are likely missing that ground on the bars. Sometimes the handlebars are grounded via "accidental" grounds such as the throttle cable or clutch cable, but they should not be counted on. You can run a new ground wire from the frame to the bars.
The stock wiring has a ground wire that runs from the top engine mounting to the frame. Check if you have that. If not, run a black 14 gauge wire from the top motor mount ( have the terminal directly against the engine casting) to the frame (scratch off the paint so that the terminal is against bare metal). Also solder the terminals............no crimping.
Your starter motor push button needs to have a ground connection. The problem is that the handlebars are rubber mounted and not grounded. With stock wiring, the ground is supplied to the handlebars with a black wire that comes from the wiring harness inside the headlight bucket. You are likely missing that ground on the bars. Sometimes the handlebars are grounded via "accidental" grounds such as the throttle cable or clutch cable, but they should not be counted on. You can run a new ground wire from the frame to the bars.
Sorry about that, the bike is a 79 XS650. I notice the handlebar ground you're talking about when I was checking for loose connections. It goes into the headlight bucket and attaches to the bolt coming into the headlight from the turn signal. I just checked it and sanded it down and it's making a good connection. I did put new bars on, but I sanded it down to bare metal where the handlebar controls cover incase it needed to make a ground. The only thing I don't understand is I did nothing to the wiring except for unbolt it from the battery box, and it ran fine before I did that. And I get a spark every once in a while if I pull a plug and jump the starter motor, if there was a bad ground it wouldn't spark at all correct?
