Starter solonoid clicks twice and will only turn over once?

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GuitarGuy1996

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Hey guys, I've got a weird one here. As soon as I have my XS750 ready to try to start, electrical gremlins read their head. I've rebuilt the starter (although I'm not convinced I did a great job 🤣) and it worked to turn the bike over to check compression and such. Then I put in new coils and noticed it wouldn't turn over without the coils plugged in. Now I have new coils in it and it'll turn over once, maybe twice, and that's it. Each time I hit the starter, it'll do one rev and quit. Sometimes when I hit the button, it doesn't turn over at all. Ive tried two new solonoids and no luck. Any ideas? Thanks guys.
 
First thing to do is check battery voltage while at rest and when cranking. If the battery’s reserve is weak it may not have enough juice to turn the engine/ over. Did you adjust the timing? Too far advanced may give cranking issues too.
 
The battery is on a tender while I'm doing this. I was working on lights and signals before this so I just left it there. But it looks like it's holding 12.7-12.8 volts. The tender has it up to 14 now
 
Just tried it again and it definitely spun faster and better but still, no dice. And the charger went right back down to 13.5 volts down from 14.4. I may have tried 4 or 5 times.
 
GuitarGuy1996 said:
Then I put in new coils and noticed it wouldn't turn over without the coils plugged in.
Click to expand...
The part with the coils is a little strange; I don't have a schematic for those, but several Yamahas power the solenoid off the coil + circuit - but in parallel:umm:

Anyway, the bit about spinning ok with plugs out (comp. check), but not in, may indicate the starter isn't getting full amps: my current guess is the engine is not getting a good ground (therefore neither is the starter) or the battery isn't getting a good ground (or both)
 
Solenoid clicks twice......: so, while we're checking grounds, ensure the solenoid ground signal (maybe Blue/ white stripe) from starter button is getting a ground - perhaps to handlebar (maybe paint powder coat) or via black wire in switch lead.
 
Just let the battery fully charge (according to the tender) and tried it with the multi meter hooked to it. Looks like the battery voltage goes down to about 11.3ish the brief second the starter spins and then it comes right back up to 12.9 once Ive let off.
 
Ok now I'm confused. I tried voltage from the starter wire and it does exactly what the starter does. It kicks on for a sec and then voltage drops to 0. But if I pull the wire off the starter and try it again with the starter wire pulled off, it has voltage as long as I have the button pushed! Which should mean it's just a bad starter right?
 
GuitarGuy1996 said:
Which should mean it's just a bad starter right?
Click to expand...
Possible, but for some reason, I doubt it. What is the history on this battery and what is the amp/hr rating?
 
It was a new battery I got right after I got the bike in August. It's spent most of its life on the trickle charger. It's a superstart from orileys with apparently 190 CCA. Having a hard time finding the amp/hr. It was turning the starter fine before I rebuilt it.
 
Ok so update. I just pulled the starter and tested the armature as per the service manual and the resistance in the armature is all over the place. Idk if that's the only issue but I definitely think it's one of them.
 
For future reference, a common and easy way to tell if it's the starter or the solenoid is to jumper around the solenoid. Use something... pliers, U-bolt or somesuch and touch it to both big terminals on the solenoid. That bypasses the solenoid and sends battery current straight to the starter.
If it spins like it's supposed to, there's a problem with the solenoid or it's wiring.
If it still won't spin right, the problems with the starter or it's connection(s).

There will be some arcing so I always spin some old nuts on the solenoid terminals and let them take the arcing.
 
Finally figured it out! The starter was bad but that wasn't my main issue. I'm running aftermarket switches and didn't have them wired up right. There was one wire that split to both the starter button and the kill switch. Not sure why but the wiring diagram from yamaha has them as basically 2 separate systems. I ended up clipping where it branched off to the starter button, extending the now short wire to reach about half way under the tank, and ground it out there. Now it works perfect! Not sure why it was acting fine before and the issue only came up after I put new coils in but it's fixed, the starter works, and I have spark! Thank yall for your help! Now to tackle the choke, but I'll put that in a new thread.
 

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