Starter Relay

[j2maria]

I know that various aspects of this topic have been beaten to death; however, I am a little stumped here.

I removed the starter motor on the bike I am restoring and cleaned off years of gunk, opened it and cleaned the brushes, topped up the oil and cleaned the chain. The issue seems to be in the solenoid: the bike did not have any attached, but the box of spares that came with the bike had two - a Bosch and an unknown solenoid. When I connect either one of them and press the starter I hear the click of the solenoid and I measure ~12.6v at the terminal of the cable going to the starter motor. However, the starter motor does not turn other than the first time I tried it. After that first time, just a click! I know that if there is not enough voltage in the battery it might not open the contacts, but I get >12v at the terminal, and usually, if there is insufficient voltage there tends to be a series of clicks. Any ideas? Is there a way to bypass the solenoid just to test - jumping the large +v battery terminal directly to the cable going to the starter just to see if the starter turns over?

[3potjohn]

The starter relay is a high current relay, It just sends the full battery power to the motor. I have had these apart as the contacts were burned but to no avail. You should be able to get the motor to turn from the battery usung the large diameter starter cable but there is a lot of current so be careful.

[j2maria]

I know that various aspects of this topic have been beaten to death; however, I am a little stumped here.

I removed the starter motor on the bike I am restoring and cleaned off years of gunk, opened it and cleaned the brushes, topped up the oil and cleaned the chain. I bought a new Kawasaki starter relay that works. However, when I connected it up I get a click. This is with a 19ah fully charged battery, a cleaned starter and a new relay. I jumped 87 and 30 with a screwdriver to send power directly to the starter, but nothing, just a click from the relay.

Any ideas?

Joe

[Andy_C]

If you have the same voltage at the battery lead with the solenoid energised, then you either have a battery that has seen better days - it might measure 12.6 volts at the starter motor lead but can it supply sufficient current to turn the motor?, or perhaps you have bad battery to motor leads - have you checked their end to end resistance?

You could also try checking the solenoid terinal voltage with the solenoid energised - if it really dips down it shows suggests that the battery cannot supply enough current, or the motor is drawing current but is unable to turn for some reason.

You say "the starter motor does not turn other than the first time I tried it" are you saying you managed to get the motor to work once via the solenoid?

If that is the case it suggests that there may be something wrong with the motor - you say you had it apart to clean the brushes etc, has something become dislodged inside the motor? worth a look.

Finally, there is a warning in the handbook not to run the starter motor with it connected to the clutch mechanism without it being fitted to the engine, it says that there is a risk of damaging the casing if you do - can only surmise that the 3 "shoes" that grip the rim on the flywheel will all fling outwards and break the case.

[bigred]

Hi.
I had exactly same issue.
check you have a good earth back to the battery.
Check the brushes are not sticking in the holders and are freely moving back and forwards
The brush holders are riveted through the pcb. Mine had broken internally. Had to replace with small brass screw.

[3potjohn]

Think I’d be tempted to try jump leads direct from a charged battery to the removed motor very briefly. You’ll have to hold the motor or it may move. If it fails to activate like that there is an internal fault.
With the starter gearbox removed can you turn the cog wheel by hand at all?
Then at the commutator brush end look for obvious signs or arcing and check continuity.
The second part of this may help?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CpRxS1_oB ... bW90b3I%3D

[BumbleBee]

...there is a warning in the handbook not to run the starter motor with it connected to the clutch mechanism without it being fitted to the engine, it says that there is a risk of damaging the casing if you do - can only surmise that the 3 "shoes" that grip the rim on the flywheel will all fling outwards and break the case.

Its a bit of a strange warning but I suppose they have to cover all eventualities. If the side casing and the starter motor isn't bolted to the rest of the bike the starter motor won't run because in effect there would be no neutral connected to the starter motor?
You would just get a click from the solenoid and nothing else.

[3potjohn]

Remove the motor, unhooked from the chain drive then try on a battery very briefly negatve to the motor case , then positive quickly on the brass terminal. It should immediately spin. If it does not run stop and check brush holder for jammed brushes and continuity.
The warning in the manual is referring to running the whole starter mechanism in the removed cover because the shoes are not restricted by the ring on the flywheel.