"Magnetic Switch" between battery & starter?

[Joe - Joe]

Trying to start a mechanically rebuilt '79 and all I get is a clicking from the magnetic switch. I've made sure battery is not backwards, but I'm "electrically challenged" after that. Any ideas?

[SS]

Joe

some obvious questions are:

Has the engine ever been started since the rebuild?
Does the engine rotate freely w/o the spark plugs?
Is the battery fully charged?
Check your battery voltage (s/b 12.5v)
Recheck, clean, tighten all connections to battery, solenoid, starter

also look through some of the previous postings to see the resolve of others electrical problems

good luck

[sr71cbx]

--

[Jim-Jim]

Joe, a quick check of your starter relay is to get a single battery jumper cable (heavy guage) and bypass the starter relay by CAREFULLY touching the cable to the two posts on the top. If the relay is bad, the starter will turn the engine over; if not, nothing (as before) will happen. Don't leave the cable connected longer than needed to see if the starter turns.

[broook]

In an emergency last year in the woods with my ATC I shorted the starter solenoid with the screwdriver on my pocket knife. Just make sure you cross out the nuts and not the threaded studs or you will have a hard time getting the nuts off to replace it. Also this is very close to the battery, watch out for sparks.

[Joe-Joe]

Thanks for all the great advice to my dilemma. Yes, the solenoid was the culprit. Now that it turns over it won't fire.

I have spark to the plugs and the gas is flowing. I next checked the timing advancer and low and behold it is out by 180 degrees!!!!!!! OK, to answer the obvious questions (to me anyway) : A) Cylinders #1 & #6 are near the top of the compression stroke when the "F" line is aligned with the center of the engine casing & B) When doing the engine rebuild I took the clutch cover off without removing the advancer C) I made sure I followed the manuals instructions on cam shaft installation ie: lobes for #6 pointing into spark plugs when aligning sprocket punchmarks with top of head and #6 lobes pointing out and #1 in when installing second pair of intake/exhaust cams with punch marks lining up with head and #1 & #6 at TDC.

So guys, what did I screw up this time? I appreciate your help, but Mark, I don't think adding a turbo will fix this!



Joe

[Jeff Dean]

Mine did the exact same thing after a rebuilt (read, sitting a long time) Although that is a solid state part, I diasssembled it, cleaned the contacts and she's been starting ever since. JJD









"clean, admire, ride, repeat"

[broook]

You probably already know this but did you call the #1 cylinder the one on the left when sitting on the bike, not working on it from the front?