starter motor

[sarrebmat]

could anyone help me with a slight problem with my new aquisition, a 1981 xs 1100 midnight special. after putting a new rectifier on the beast, all i get when i press the starter is a clicking sound from a small box near the fuses. Can anyone help!!!!!

[mitch]

Try this

Bypass the silonide, in other words just to check the starter itself ,run a direct line to the starter from the positive on the battery to see if the starter works! Just touch the live wire on to the right side of the silonide, sorry cant spell lol........MITCH

[mitch]

Battry?

I should of asked is your battery fully charged if not that is step 1, if the starter turns over you might have a bad silonide, the thing that is clicking when u hit the starter!..........MITCH

[sarrebmat]

starter motor

thanks for the advice. will try it sometime today.. may be getting back to you

[uk1.1s]

Clicking Solenoid

Used to get this prob from time to time on my XS.

As Mitch says - could be a dodgey solenoid so you can route direct with a test wire.

My Solenoid used to react well to a good bash with something (it's the unit that is wired direct from the battery).

As things got worse I got lazy (particularly with a hangover in a rally field after camping somewhere). My next phase was shorting across the terminals with an old screwdriver. Not really recommended as you can either weld the screwdriver to the contacts or set fire to something due to the heat generated. Used to start the bike tho'

Also does this when the battery is a bit low, so first try whilst connecting up jump leads to something substantial, like a car battery. Beware of jumping from vans as some use a 24v system.

OK - so sensible procedure if that doesn't work is to try bashing / shaking it (not too hard) whilst holding the starter button in. If this works it'll be a worn/sticky solenoid. Mitches check is more scientific and useful so follow up with this to make sure there are no wiring probs etc. I stripped my solenoid down to see if I could fix it - but once it's playing up I'd recommend that you don't bother.

If it is the solenoid unit itself a replacement is not too expensive - I got one from a breakers for about 10 pounds as it's the same unit as a 900 Diversion. Connector and everything plugs right in to the one I had. Worth taking the old unit along to save any heartache if they changed them on the Diversion for some reason. As the 900 Divvy is not a USA model some won't know what I'm on about here - but as I see you are in rainy Manchester you'll know what I mean!!

Good luck

[scoobes]

if you can get the bike going and get it to formby liverpool,we can swap parts to find out what is the exact cause without you going out to buy somethink that is not causeing the problem,hey 1.1s heres another one of us in the uk.

[uk1.1s]

A case of the Solenoids

Hi Scoobes - yep the more in the UK the merrier!

Hope you can help out if sarrebmat continues to be stuck...there's been a lot of times when I wished I had an XS11 contact down the road with the odd part to 'try out'

As posted above - a rummage around a breakers showed the solenoid to be exactly the same as the 900 Divvy - down to the connector block too. A handy thing to know when things go wrong.

Bit off topic (sorry Sarrebmat) - but how's your mate coming on with the alternative ignition box? Don't need one - but be nice to know I have a source!

[scoobes]

hi 1.1.have not spoke to him,but i will make a point of it the next couple of days.have you seen the midnight special on ebay at the moment,the good thing is its in the uk,starting bid is £400,no one has bid on it yet,and no reserve,i am watching it.

[sarrebmat]

starter motor

thanks to you all for the advice, I put a different battery on and the bike fired up... It turns out that i had fried the new battery i was using by charging it with a car recharger for about 18 hrs. So although it was new , it is now "knackered". I have taken advice and i will only use a trickle charger in the future. thanks again

Gary (in rainey Manchester)

How do I show you all my picture in the margin????

[scoobes]

now you have done that, as you only live down the road my email is,scoobes@blueyonder.co.uk have you joined the uk xs1100s club yet.robbie.

[Mike Hart]

Re: starter motor

Originally posted by sarrebmat
How do I show you all my picture in the margin????

Gary, there is a thread about "Avatars" in the Forum How To forum.