Starter upgrade issues

JeffR3Colorado said:

I have made progress. Found a ground wire in the harness that was disconnected from the ignition plug. Reconnected that and I have lights and relay pole #30 is hot. It only has 11.5 V as I assume the light use up some charge, as they dim when i hit the button. And the relay is sending all 11.5 v to the starter solenoid. But it needs 12v, and 11.5 is not turning it over. I did upgrade the started to 1.7kw over the stock 1.3kw. My guess is I need to find a higher cranking battery (current one is brand new stock) or find a stock starter to put back into it or separate the light circuit from the starter circuit?

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Good on finding the bad ground wire
However that starter will crank at 10 volts and i seen one crank at 9.4volts.
So your thinking is a little off. I would guess that the volts/amps is not getting to the starter you probably still need some trouble shooting.
Kevin is correct try jumping it with a good battery and i think it is still not going to start.
Was the new relay a 12 volt relay

Update: I spoke with a mechanic friend on the phone and you r correct, larger battery is not going to solve my problem. He sent me back to were I found the disconnected wire, I began to dig around and found some black electrical tape, as I unwound it I found 8 butt connections spliced. The wiring harness plug had been cut off and spliced back on. My friend suggested that I remove all the butt connectors and solder the wires back together. Poor connections can cost me olms and volts as well as be the reason I have had intermittent starting problems for the last 2 years with this bike. I will pick up some solder equipment this week and see if that resolves my problems, the snow is melting and I want to get back in the wind soon.

JeffR3Colorado said:

Update: I spoke with a mechanic friend on the phone and you r correct, larger battery is not going to solve my problem. He sent me back to were I found the disconnected wire, I began to dig around and found some black electrical tape, as I unwound it I found 8 butt connections spliced. The wiring harness plug had been cut off and spliced back on. My friend suggested that I remove all the butt connectors and solder the wires back together. Poor connections can cost me olms and volts as well as be the reason I have had intermittent starting problems for the last 2 years with this bike. I will pick up some solder equipment this week and see if that resolves my problems, the snow is melting and I want to get back in the wind soon.

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Not out of the woods yet, but getting closer. I fixed 11 connection I found, with solder joints. My voltage to the starter motor went from 11.4v to 11.6v, so improvement. But still not turning over the starter.

I need a favor, if anyone has a 2007 give or take a few years (2005-2009 ish). Would you unplug the wire that runs to your starter solenoid (comes from your starter relay) , stick one end of your volt meter in that and the other clip it to ground. Pull your clutch and hit your starter button. How many volts are u getting to the starter solenoid? This may help me determine if my issue is in my solenoid/starter or if I need to dig deeper into the wiring harness. Thank you in advance!

as long as you have 10 volts that starter should turn over
now if you check it with it hooked up and it remains the same then something is wrong with the starter
if it drops a little (one volt ?) then you are energizing the solenoid but it is not making the conection to the starter.
the voltage at the starter solenoid (disconected) should be just a tad below the voltage at #30 going in when activated relay applied.

TURBO200R4 said:

as long as you have 10 volts that starter should turn over
now if you check it with it hooked up and it remains the same then something is wrong with the starter
if it drops a little (one volt ?) then you are energizing the solenoid but it is not making the conection to the starter.
the voltage at the starter solenoid (disconected) should be just a tad below the voltage at #30 going in when activated relay applied.

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It is energizing the solenoid, I get a click at the solenoid but is not passing juice to the starter motor

JeffR3Colorado said:

It is energizing the solenoid, I get a click at the solenoid but is not passing juice to the starter motor

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Update: Basically I am back to the beginning. She starts sometimes. More consistently when she is warm, clicks several times if she is cool. I pop it into gear and bump the tranny a few times then pull the clutch and she fires. This is the same issue that lead me to swap out the starter solenoid, then swap out the ignition, etc... i pulled the nuetral switch and cleaned it with some Emory cloth. But she is still temperamental. I am running out of things to test and replace...

I said it b4 and i will say it again if the starter solenoid is clicking then all the safetys are working along with the relay. So either you're not getting enough voltage at the starter solenoid
(Witch i dought) or you have a starter problem. I would recommend another starter solenoid or if you bought that starter then try to exchange it for another one.

We have achieved success!!!! I want to thank everyone that participated in this thread and especially Turbo200R4 for you patience and sound advise. Here is the final break down of what was going on... first was the ignition switch, like others have shared, the wires under the switch had gotten hot and melted the insulation. Hooking up the Guard Dawg ignition system was a good fix, but lead to finding that the previous owner had done 11 splice butt connectors inside the wiring harness (if that wasn't my problem, it would become one soon enough) so I replace all 11 with solder joints. The final issue was my starter solenoid. The first thing I did was replace the starter and to save money I did the toyota starter upgrade. I did not find the solenoid rebuild kit and so I went with the "cut the pin 1- 1/16" shorter" option. I did not check the solenoid contracts and I was a 1/16" to long. The contacts were close enough to arch occasionally and start the bike but was not consistent. When I opened up the solenoid I saw pitting and realized they were not making good contact. I ground another 1/16" of the push rod, Emory cloth the pitting on the contacts, and it now starts every time and runs like a dream. Thanks for all your help!!!!

If I remember, I swapped out the pin from the old starter? It was quite a few years ago, but I don't remember cutting anything.

Tripps said:

If I remember, I swapped out the pin from the old starter? It was quite a few years ago, but I don't remember cutting anything.

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Yup, I thought of that after the fact.