New battery, ground arc

[hdjxacto]

Newbie here! I recently sold my daily rider, '07 SV650 naked, and am switching over to my older, somewhat neglected, 1996 Suzuki VS800 Intruder.

I installed a new battery and in doing so, disconnected the engine grounding bolt to loosen that line. The battery is installed now, but when I attempted to reinstall the long bolt, it arc'd in a big way and the starter motor engaged (with the kill switch Off and ignition off/key removed).

This was at the end of a a few hours of trial and error. I put some electrical tape on the grounding cable to insulate it from the engine block and am reaching out to you now.

As I am typing this, it occurred to me that maybe the red battery connector could be grounding on the metal battery case, causing a short and feeding power directly to the starter contact... I'll go check that out next.

Any other suggestions?

[hillsy]

If it isn't the short circuit like you've suggested it might be a stuck / defective starter solenoid....or the solenoid has been wired incorrectly.

[WintrSol]

My money would be on the starter relay. Shorting to the case would lead to a direct short when the ground cable is connected; I don't think that could run the starter motor.

[Herb]

My money would be on the starter relay. Shorting to the case would lead to a direct short when the ground cable is connected; I don't think that could run the starter motor.

+1 for a start.

Try disconnecting the trigger wire from the start solenoid and see what happens. If it still does it then you have a bad solenoid, if it doesn't you have an issue as to where the solenoid is getting power from.