[OldRider2]

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I'm dubbing away at the GL1000 I picked up and I have been trying to do some electrical troubleshooting. I can't get it to crank by pushing in the start button but if I short the two big terminals on the starter solenoid it will turn over fine. While I have been off and on working on it I disconnected the negative battery cable. Here is something I'm confused on. Just the positive battery terminal is connected. When I take my trouble light and hook it to a good ground, I find that there are several wires that are hot even though the battery doesn't have the negative lead hooked up. For some reason I was under the impression that if both battery terminals weren't hooked up nothing should have power showing, no trouble light should work, etc. Am I missing something here guys?



One last thing, I was trying to confirm if my starter solenoid was bad but something I read said to check the neutral switch. Is there a neutral switch on a 1977 Goldwing and if so where is it? I supposed checking out the Neutral Switch may not be as important as answering my dilema/question from the first paragraph. Thanks in advance.

 

[agnogel]

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hi oldrider if you dont have the negitive connected you have no hot wires re no power so all i can conclude is that your tester is showing contanuity so it has its own battery inside in order to light the bulb is that correct, as for the solenoid have a look at the starter button its proberly not makeing a connection or no power to it to switch the solenoid on

 

[muaymendez1]

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Also check the male to female plug housed with the solenoid. I recently had that problem and had to remove the wires from the plug and hard wire them. i didnt solder just used spade connectors

 

[DaveO430]

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Are you sure you don't have a self powered test light? Not possible to have power on anything with the neg. disconnected.
Does the neutral light work? If it does,
with your battery connected turn the ignition on and start button pushed test for power to the red/yellow wire on the solenoid. If it has power then check for ground to the green/red wire. Do this by connecting your test light to pos. battery and probe to the wire. If it has ground the solenoid is probably bad. If it doesn't have ground try pulling the clutch lever in, still no ground jumper the 2 wires on the clutch switch together. If that works then the clutch switch is bad and probably the neutral diode, if the neutral light is working. If the neutral light doesn't work check the red/green wire from the neutral switch and the switch itself, it's located on the right side of the engine behind the frame rail.

 

[k1w1t1m]

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If you have your trouble light connected to the negative battery terminal then it will complete the circuit and show it as hot.

 

[OldRider2]

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Wow! You guys are fast in your replies. You obviously recognize someone in over their head!:gunhead: No my trouble light is an old K-D that I have had for probably 25 years anyway and it isn't battery powered. K1WKTLM figured it out though and it makes sense now that I think about it. I had it on the Neg. Bat. terminal instead of another ground, so it was completing the circuit........in a round about way. I'm thinking slower now that I am old, fat, and gray! Now I'll check the start button next, maybe tomorrow.

 

[morriscatt]

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OR2, what your about to check, I am in the middle of. Mabey we can both get help for possible same problem.

My start button woes began like this, first noticed sometimes when pressed it to start, nothing, let up try again, start, hd light on all ok.
then that happened a little more often over several months
then on top of that when it did start on 2nd or 3rd try, or first sometimes really more often than not, anyway, noticed the headlight was not on after starting.
I pushed starter button just for kicks once and noticed the hdlight came on (while running).
So for a few months I just started bike, toughed starter button again, and waw la, the hd light would come on and I rode.
Now it only trys to start on 3 or 4th try of pushing button, then starts, however, no matter how I touch, push, bang button (again still running) the hdlight is not comming on. It is a new hdlight so that is not the problem.
So I took apart the starter button thing, I can see the button push-in on a small blk thing...
Now what?

 

[OldRider2]

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Dave, what do you mean by, "If it has ground the solenoid is probably bad." I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for when I hook from the positive bat terminal probing the wire? When I do that the test light doesn't light, or if I pull in the clutch lever the test light doesn't light. I pust the start button with the above scenario and still no light. The Neutral Light is on when I turn the key on.

 

[DaveO430]

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The solenoid has to have power and ground to work so if your neutral light works and the red/green wire doesn't show ground the problem is probably the neutral diode. If it still doesn't ground with the clutch pulled that's probably bad too. Did you try jumping the 2 wires on the clutch switch together?

 

[terry_208]

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I also had that problem. With my gl100, the fix was very simple. I simply cleaned the contacts, at the start button itself, with contact cleaner. The people on this forum told me that the headlight goes out when the start button is depressed to give full power to the starter. Check all connections on the start circuit. Be sure your bike is on the center stand, and try to crank with the clutch lever pulled. Sometimes you find them in gear and they won't start unless the clutch is pulled. I got these tips and more from responses to my problem, starter not energizing.

 

[OldRider2]

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Yes I jumpered the two wires on the clutch switchand still nothing.

 

[OldRider2]

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Back again. I checked all of the diodes and they are all ok. (continuity flows in only one direction on all of them.) The clutch switch wires had been pulled ? out of the clutch lever area Iguessby the previous owner. I'm wondering more and more how/if he ever got it running.

 

[mainwiz3]

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When I bought my first GL1100 interstate it took me two weeks to go through the wiring PO's had the idea running a hot wire to something fixed the problem. So never be suprised by what you will find on older bikes.

 

[OldRider2]

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Well after checking and rechecking, also finding where everything you guys told me to check was, I started chasing wires. I found the wires from the starter button that went behind the headlight area, then down into a bundle covered with a rubber boot under the left side, were completely pulled apart! The more I look the more I question all the things the P.O. told me (or didn't tell me) about the bike. So the bike cranks fine now. I quickly checked spark in one cylinder and had some so I assumed I do at all four cyl. Need to check that further. I used Randdak's method of InSitu carb cleaning with the Yamaha Carb Cleaner but when I tried to start it yesterday no luck. I was hoping to get it running and then assess how much further and how much money I want to expend on my 'Project'. I have no Neutral light and I haven't figured out why on that yet either.

 

[mainwiz3]

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Oldrider2 I have a GL1100I that the PO cleaned the carbs (?) pull carbs clean float bowls and put them back in. I opened the carb and found the air cutoff's turning to jelly, replacement time, I'll order master rebuild kit from Randakk's cycleshack clean and rebuild them. Wuth the carbs you never know what PO's might have done so with the carbs better to start fresh. The time and money spent will make that first ride so much sweeter. I find it's not the money I spend fixing up my bike I think about but the pleasure I get fromdoing thing on older bike that no one else can do.

:jumper:

 

[OldRider2]

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I finally got the old beast fired up today. It initially was a little hesitant but I gave it a quick shot of starting fluid and it fired right up, stumbled a little, and then kept on going. I was amazed how relatively smooth it was and it even idled by itself for awhile at about 9-1000 RPMs. I just ran it long enough to warm it up, (it was about 25 degrees here in light snow at the time), and then put it back in the garage. Still no Neutral light, the temperature never went up on the Temp Gauge, and it didn't seem like the clutch was just right. I could get it in First but going into second was going to hard/a little bit of grinding so I didn't force it. I'm happy it even ran!:dude:If I raced it a little it backfired but I thought that might be because it doesn't have any mufflers on it.