Solved: Why the ignition died and the starter would not work

[3Phase]

Random ignition failure

One overheated, loose, ballast resistor connector caused the ignition to die:




Intermittant no-start

A broken wire inside the starter solenoid caused a very annoying, intermittant, no-start problem:






Re-wrap the wiring harness

All of the local suppliers have festive colors - no black:



It's supposed to be a motorcycle, not a pinata!



Regards,

Scott

[skids]

I did get visions of you beating it with a stick!

[3Phase]

Originally posted by skids
I did get visions of you beating it with a stick!

If this doesn't fix it... I cleaned and tightened and greased those ballast connectors before the Yosemite rally. I'm left wondering why the connector overheated and loosened up in the first place.

Obviously, something is or was drawing too much current so the TCI itself could be overheating and cutting out, then restarting and cutting out again as it heats and cools. Multiple, layered, failures are always so much fun to troubleshoot and fix.

I've sent off today for a new rear wheel bearing from Nemisus so I have some time to think about more fun stuff like re-rolling the red, white, and blue tapes onto one spool to make a nice spiral effect when I wrap up the harness.



Regards,

Scott

[Jerry]

Well, a broken starter solenoid wire is a new one to me. Don't think I've heard of another instance of this problem in several years on this site. Wonder why it broke; any evidence of loose bolts or PO meddling?

Ballast resister problems have cropped up from time to time; do a search and you may find what others have done to correct the problem.

Randy is the TCI guru; this doesn't sound like a TCI issue except some of the boxes develope cold solder joints on the pins, causing intermittent operation. Take a look at this thread:
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...&highlight=TCI

[3Phase]

Hey, Jerry, glad to see you made it back safely and I have to tell you, your travel and rally pictures are a lot better than the ones I took with my cheesy phone camera!

The starter solenoid would test good with a meter and it worked when jumpered directly from the battery. Pressing down on the outside of the solder bead at the wire pushed it down enough to make a connection for a while. Judging by the diameter and depth of the pitting around the wire, and because there are no large flash deposits of solder and wire detritus blown around the inside of the solenoid, I'd have to say it has been that way for a long, long, time.

There is no damage to the wiring harness itself. There was some masking tape (!?) over the pink wire connection from the right side horn and the headlight diode had been replaced. I had to replace the diode again myself after I broke it by rearranging the harness. That's it except for the usual wear and tear you'd expect on an old bike.

There have been two POs and I've known both of them for most of my life. The first owner died a while back, but he used the bike as his daily driver for almost twenty years. The second owner only drove it for a little less than two years. When I bought it, the bike had been garaged under its motorcycle cover less than ten feet away from the clothes dryer since 1999. Yeah, I know... he and I had a long talk but he says he never did any electrical work on the bike. Both POs had repairs and services done at the local Yamaha dealership. The dealership itself has moved and changed hands several times over the last few decades.

Right now the bike starts immediately at the touch of the button and it runs like a large primate after a non-consensual relationship. Burned connectors are bad so I'll test the ballast resistor and the ignition coils, then check the TCI for bad solder joints.


Regards,

Scott

[morticiaann]

Solved: Why the ignition died and the starter would not work

*Mine stopped turning over at the touch of the button and it felt like a bad contact because holding the button caused the starter to operate just a little. I took the starter motor out, tested and shined it and noted it worked fine when connected to the battery.
*My starter button wire was down to the last strand so I resoldered it. This didn't work so I bought a solenoid from Ebay. Still didn't work so I bought a 60 amp starter button from Pep Boys and drilled my right side cover to mount it. I connected the terminals to the solenoid terminals and now it starts immediately at a touch.

[Geezer]

my starter stopped working after I installed new black handlebars. As it turns out they're powder coated and non conductive. A ground wire to each switch solved that problem.

Geezer