At the Marian VA rally (Sept 2007) all of a sudden my bike wouldn't turn over. Lights come on but when I pressed the starter button ... nothing ... 2nd
gear and a roll down the hill and the bike jumped to life with the push-start. Stony explained what he thought it was. I took the right hand assembly apart
with the two screws and found that Stony was exactly correct. Over time the contacts look like grease built up and attracted dirt and eventually no contact
was being made. Another symptom was that sometimes the headlight didn't come on right away. That is because the same button breaks the connection to the
headlamp while cranking.
The pictures below show after I cleaned the contacts. Imagine black "gook" on the contacts and that is what I found. I used steel wool and a bit of electronic contact cleaner. In afterthought, I would bet that the contact cleaner may work in a pinch if it was possible to get it sprayed into the correct place. But the way it's put together, that probably would not work.
Anyway, the pictures below show how this comes apart.
Remove the two phillips screws hold the assembly together and it just pulls apart.
Remove two little brass screws that hold the strain relief and the button assembly. Then the button drops out.
Using a very small flat screwdriver, I unsnapped the button from the contacts. Before cleaning, these contacts were covered with black crud.
There are little "ears" that snap into the holes in the outside button casing to hold these two pieces together.
To test, you can turn on the ignition, put the bike in neutral, then use an insulated needle-nose pliers to short the leftmost two contact together (top to bottom). This should cause the headlight to come on. Shorting the rightmost contacts should crank the engine. (If not, I assume the problem is elsewhere)
These contacts normally keep the headlight on in the resting position. When pressed the contacts move to the start contacts which both turns off the headlamp and activated the starter. These contacts had two problems. They were dirty and they had become compressed down a bit. I had to take a very small screwdriver (the eyeglasses type) and bend them up slightly. Don't bend too far up or the button will stick ... a very bad thing for the starter.
You can remove the contacts and button from it's casing also if necessary. I replaced a but of grease in the bottom of this housing since it looked like some had been there originally. There is a spring that pops out of the right side (in this picture). I pulled on this spring just a bit to give it a bit more resistance.
A closer look at the button contacts.
It's wierd how it all of a sudden makes the starter button non-functional. Stony said he has had this problem at around 30,000 miles on several bikes. Hope this helps someone else with the same problem. It's really not a difficult fix ... I don't do difficult fixes myself ...
Cheers,
Rich
The pictures below show after I cleaned the contacts. Imagine black "gook" on the contacts and that is what I found. I used steel wool and a bit of electronic contact cleaner. In afterthought, I would bet that the contact cleaner may work in a pinch if it was possible to get it sprayed into the correct place. But the way it's put together, that probably would not work.
Anyway, the pictures below show how this comes apart.
Remove the two phillips screws hold the assembly together and it just pulls apart.
Remove two little brass screws that hold the strain relief and the button assembly. Then the button drops out.
Using a very small flat screwdriver, I unsnapped the button from the contacts. Before cleaning, these contacts were covered with black crud.
There are little "ears" that snap into the holes in the outside button casing to hold these two pieces together.
To test, you can turn on the ignition, put the bike in neutral, then use an insulated needle-nose pliers to short the leftmost two contact together (top to bottom). This should cause the headlight to come on. Shorting the rightmost contacts should crank the engine. (If not, I assume the problem is elsewhere)
These contacts normally keep the headlight on in the resting position. When pressed the contacts move to the start contacts which both turns off the headlamp and activated the starter. These contacts had two problems. They were dirty and they had become compressed down a bit. I had to take a very small screwdriver (the eyeglasses type) and bend them up slightly. Don't bend too far up or the button will stick ... a very bad thing for the starter.
You can remove the contacts and button from it's casing also if necessary. I replaced a but of grease in the bottom of this housing since it looked like some had been there originally. There is a spring that pops out of the right side (in this picture). I pulled on this spring just a bit to give it a bit more resistance.
A closer look at the button contacts.
It's wierd how it all of a sudden makes the starter button non-functional. Stony said he has had this problem at around 30,000 miles on several bikes. Hope this helps someone else with the same problem. It's really not a difficult fix ... I don't do difficult fixes myself ...
Cheers,
Rich
