Starter not spinning with the button

[CatatonicBug]

I hopped on the bike this morning to come to work, and turned the key. Pressed the starter button, and NOTHING!!

Checked the kill switch, and I can hear a relay clicking down under the seat when I click the switch back and forth, so I know there is SOME power movement there. Dash lights are on. So, I took off the side cover and used a garden trowel to short across the terminals on the starter solenoid, and it started fine.

Once I was sitting on the seat again, I tried pressing the starter button again, and though the starter didn't try to spin, the headlight dimmed a tiny bit, showing what I would expect to be the normal power drain of a starter. What should I be looking at as far as a defective part/connection?

[randy]

The contacts inside the solenoid are corroded or burnt. It is possible to take it apart and clean it, but it's painstaking unsoldering the coil leads and dealing with all the little pieces. It's easier to swap it with another one.

[CatatonicBug]

Thanks. I just went out and looked at it, and it started right up! Must be an intermittent problem. I did locate a replacement at PNM (their P/N 24-2005)for $32. It appears that this happens to be yet another part that the XJ shares with the '81 MNS. For anyone else looking to solve this problem, the OEM part number is 22U-81940-00-00.

[DGXSER]

I have not looked, but it would shock me if that part changed sinced 1978. Nothing about these bikes changed through the years that would change that solenoid function or characteristics I can think of. For that matter, it is may well be the same on the XS650s and 750/850s. Its a prettty simple device.