scooter broke!

[Special Ed]

Help!
My bike has been running like a top: no sign of trouble. I shut it off and when I went to start it back up, the starter went "click," but it wouldn't start. More specifically it won't turn over... won't rotate. It acts like something came loose inside the engine. I'm hoping it is something easy to get to, like maybe the starter. Any ideas anyone?
This is Thursday night, before my favorite weekend of the year and my scooter is broke!
Hope to get some feedback!
E.Liberty

[randy]

Dead battery?

Have you tried kick-starting her?

[uk1.1s]

Starter

Just a click and nothing sounds like a dead battery.

Try hooking up to a car battery (without the engine running works if the battery on that is OK). Press the starter again and hopefully it'll turn over.

If nothing still try taking off the left hand crack cover (the vacuum advance cover and turn her over by hand. Don't forget XS11 engins run backwards to most other bikes - so note the arrows on the advance plate for direction of rotation.

That should show you that the engine turns over. If it's really stiff take out a plug or two and try with less compression.

Now:

a) Engine turns over freely and you just need to sort out a starter problem (battery / starter solenoid / starter brushes etc etc)

Or

b) you can't get the darn thing to turn over at all by hand - in which case uyou may well have something SERIOUS to look for.

Don't despair - it's probably the battery or starter solenoid.

If it's the solenoid you can get things started by putting a screwdriver shaft between the two contacts - not recommended as a permanent fix - but lazy me used it for quite a while - do it confidently as you get a spark as you short across the connections. The solenoid is under the left hand side panel and is a small cylindrical thing - the first thing the positive side of the battery is connected to.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey UK XS1.1,

In the US, the solenoid is under the RIGHT hand side cover, not the left!

Liberty, the other thing I'm worried about is IF this was a new battery, and it's gone dead, then you need to check out the charging system.....voltmeters once it's running to see if it's going up to 14 or so volts at 2500+ RPM. If it's only 12 or less, then something's wrong with the charging system!?
Good Luck, hope you get to ride some of the weekend!
T.C.

[uk1.1s]

right ...left...errr

S'OK TC... it's the same here... I just wasn't wearing my L & R shoes the other day. So confusing sometimes don't you think