'96 VS800GL Ignition clicks, lights on, NOT STARTING!!

[navigator]

Also a weak battery can "weld" the contacts in the solenoid from arcing and ruin it.
@ Lechy, can you remove the starter without removing the rear jug?
I tried, but it seemed the flange for the water tube would not allow the starter motor to be pulled up and out.

[HDR]

Ok so i saw some you're replies and trues to easilly share it online. I'll try to resend it again the same way but test with another of my accounts to make sure it's delivered. If not ill send it individually to the emails requested to see it. no harm or any other use of your email be done, but i doubt that'll be the case. I'll figure it. Oh.

One thing to keep in mind. It looks like the batter i had when it left me stranded was defective or something like that. Maybe as it was in motion as a safety feature , the batter took a jolt from some bad wiring and busted? I don't know but the battery now does not even read 1V. !! It's like 0.25V. and when it died on me I was riding it . I was going like 40 -45 down the road and it just died and didn't want to start.

Another thing to keep in mind. Since taking the bike out of the the yard took all of my funds, and this battery defective, i dont have the actual battery that would go to this bike. I'm using a fully charged 12v battery. But it's smaller. I've also tried a different one but it's the same. Now i know that it matters but at least, itd get a decent jolt, and what would happen, cause i had to do this before, is had to jump start it. But now i can't.

Because of that noise the bike makes .. or perhaps wishful thinking . I'm still leaning a just bad wiring.. let me get on sending the videos.

[HDR]

Ok hopefully this should work fellas. If anybody you can help me on how else to start it bypassing the starter please let me know. But after you see the videos , with your experience I'm pretty sure you will know what is wrong. I keep thinking bad connection. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. Thanks for all your help.

[FallenAngel]

Ok hopefully this should work fellas. If anybody you can help me on how else to start it bypassing the starter please let me know. But after you see the videos , with your experience I'm pretty sure you will know what is wrong. I keep thinking bad connection. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. Thanks for all your help.

Im getting an unsupported format error
Did you use FaceBook or Titter to upload these videos??

[HDR]

No, sharing from Google drive..let me try something else i guess.

[HDR]

No, sharing from Google drive..let me try something else i guess.



That should do it.

[hillsy]

OK - got to see your videos - sounds like the starter motor is locked up.

Good idea to put the bike in gear and rock it back and forth to see if it frees up.... or perhaps the engine is locked....

[Lechy]

@ Navigator.
The flange is bolted to the cylinder with 3 hardly accessible bolts, it's a real bitch to get off and back on ref item #5


@HDR
That sounds like a very low battery. It is no use trying to troubleshoot these bikes with a dodgy battery. Get it fully charged and load tested. FYI the so called maintenance free lead acid batteries have a strip on the top saying "Do Not Remove", it's a load of bollocks, take a very thin driver and pry it off to check the water level. ONLY ON LEAD ACID BATTERIES.

[HDR]

So in that battery that doesn't charge. There's i believe 4 "caps" that i could pry open. I've seen water put in batteries just never have done it and I've always seen it done in the largest compartment. So i pried that open and hopefully you can see the pics. But there's no water in there. There are water droplets.. definitely not acid since I've already touched it and i didn't yell like a little girl. I'm tempted to do a taste test but i think this one is sufficient. I actually can put the battery on its side, and nothing comes out of there. So it's almost bone dry. Ovbiously it's gona need water added, unless something else goes there


https://photos.app.goo.gl/JbEPfxpwAsX8Avj69

[HDR]

Also, i don't wanna mess too much with the battery since it's still under warranty. That's why I was careful not to make marks on it when I took off that cap. Water we can easily do,

Gents, quick question here, I'm trying to find logic in the problem and the possible solutions you guys are kindly providing so that i actually learn how this thing works and in the future, perhaps have a better understanding of why something happened & how i can fix it. if the battery wee at fault, or even using a less powerful battery, shouldn't at least there be a jolt? It should start if it gets "jumped" right?? Ovbiously it's an issue, it not having an once of water won't help but the other batteries? Not even a jolt. And there's a click and a motion that comes from what I believe is the starter or one of the 2.

What about what hillsy said? About it perhaps having the STARTER MOTOR, or MOTOR, locked up?

It doesn't sound like something electrical, also the lights turn on. Yes they dim when I try and start it but before that i had the older batter, I'd jump it, and it'd start. Now it does not.

[Lechy]

Woah, hold on there cowboy.
Your battery is an AGM (absorbed Glass Matting) NOT a traditional lead acid battery do a search to find the difference. Once an AGM battery is done, it's done don't be adding water to try to recover it 'cause it won't work.

[Lechy]

One way to check if the starter motor is locked up is to remove the plug from the centre of the alternator cover, it will be a slotted plug or will require an Alen wrench. If it is slotted it will pay to make something up that fits snugly into the slot and some kind of handle (vice grips) to remove it as the rubber O=ring seal can glue itself to the body. If it requires an Alen key then make sure the key is a very good fit and use a small cheater pipe to unscrew it. DO NOT use a hammer to tap it free as the plug is cast aluminium and is easily damaged. Once you have removed the plug you will see a 17 mm bolt, make sure the bike is in neutral then turn the bolt counter clockwise to turn the engine and get the feel of it. Now by turning the bolt clockwise you will engage the sprag clutch and engage the starter gears, you should hear a kind of grating sound, it's normal. Turn the engine this way a few revolutions to make sure that the starter is free. If it doesn't move freely or not at all then your starter is jammed. This works in most cases but not all as by reversing the motor it could release whatever is stuck only for it to get stuck again in normal operations. Removing the spark plugs helps when doing this.

[Herb]

I had 1 AGM battery and have no desire to ever buy another. It only had a 1 year warranty and just over 1 year I was on the I-8 freeway, just outside San Diego at 5:30 pm doing 60 mph and the bike just quit running. No warning. Scary as hell to be in rush hour traffic in the middle lane and the bike just quits, no lights to signal with, not even a brake light.

The battery had an internal open and wasn't putting out anything. Never had that happen with a standard lead-acid.

I have talked to a number of people since then that had the same kind of thing happen with the AGM batteries.

[FallenAngel]

HDR
In your first post you mentioned your land lord knocked the bike over and you had a few things to fix
Next you had a battery problem that you Remedied
Then the bike left you stranded and ended up in the impound storage yard

I downloaded one of your videos and it looks to me that your shorting to ground. and I didn't hear the starter trying to engage even the small wires should be enough to although If the engine crank the wires would get extremely hot

2 more questions
What was the bike doing at the time it left you stranded and ended up in the tow yard, did it die while riding??
After the bike was knocked over did you check the oil

Hilsey brought up a vary valid point "or perhaps the engine is locked...."
I would look into the possibility that your engine is locked up

In Lechys post he tells you how to access the crank to turn the engine over by hand
You can also pull the spark plugs but the bike in a high gear and see if it rolls

[HDR]

Good morning Gents, hope y'all been well, and if not, hope it gets better for ya soon!!
Anyhow i wanted to give you guys the final update on this. Honestly I'm unsure of what the main issue was. Apparently o had the cables mixed? Positive and negative? Which i seriously doubt. Anyhow. Once that got squared away, since i just wanted it running I asked him if we could bypass anything by adding an external ignition switch!! And he said yes so that's what I did but now. This is 2 adjustments that I've made that have altered the bike. If y'all recall, Navigator i believe, suggested i I remove the electrical compliments that connect to the left handle bar. The motorcycle keeps stalling. I convinced the owner of the store where i bought the battery to give me s new replacement since it has a 12 month warranty. First he said he'd test it. Then he said he didn't know what was going on, it charged all day and was hovering at 2 or 3 volts. So his logical response was to ask me "what I did to it and that the battery left the store fine. Anyhow. I finally convinced him; a full refund, a replacement battery(a new one. Yesterday when I called, I'd began to ask him to hand the battery over to an Uber driver that I'd send cause i needs the battery asap and i was stranded. First he was at least willing to hand the battery to the Uber driver id send. But then . He exploded because he said the old battery i was saying was defective, was not charged up And ready to go. To which of course i said "great, you'll be able to resell it to someone else, cause I'm not taking that one. He got all special and srcasticly said it's ok if he loses out, for me not to worry about it. I said what isn't ok is that i paid $100+ , for a "working" battery, not a hopeful battery and asked him what was he going to do when it left me stranded again at midnight? So he got mad and said to go get my new battery but that he wasn't sending me sh!t, that id have to go get it myself. Like a d@mn child! So it isn't ok that he lose out.. i should lose out. Anyways. Sorry about the rant. So I'll get the battery today, we'll have prayer session or seance or something of the sort to make sure this battery works..yesterday when.. never mind. Next one

[HDR]

Ok. So assuming the battery is fine. I have 2 pressing things .
1. The throttle cables
A) inside, under the tank and seat, there are some junctions lets say, where the throttle cables go through . They're like a full golden color i think? At some of those junctions, in specific, one of the cables that goes from the accelerator , the right handle bar. It has ripped tension cables ripped, separated. Are these always like that surrounding and i n the process i guess supporting one main, slimmer throttle cable, that actually does the pulling?
B) The cables are way oh tof sync, the bike is revving up way too much. If you guys say that yes those cables must be replaced, tit seems most of you lean towards just getting them made to size at a bicycle shop . So i guess I'll do that today the battery , and in the process of putting in the new throttle cables, sync them as perfectly as possible.

2) ok the second question if you don't mind. I'm at the point that although i know that battery is not good enough, that's not all. How hot should the cables connecting to the battery and onto their destination be getting??You guys have mentioned it before and I'm fed up with being stranded. So. If you can, what would you recommend as far as rewiring the bike? Since I'm doing the throttl cables, might as well so the rest. Also. For example yesterday when it stalled on me. When I'd try and start it, as soon as I clicked on the start button , the lights would die out completely. Not an attempt to start, a hiss, jolt, nothing. Which means... There a something that is shorting out periodically, since at times it is ok. The best solution is just to rewire the whole thing . Since I'm not experienced, I'd imagine doing it in sets, areas per say, would be best correct? I remove one cable, one wire, one connection, i immediately replace it with the new. Is there and actual FULL rewiring kit for this bike? Thank you guys so much. I'm thing of just seeing it now, it's not that the bike itself had been bad, it's the damage that that idiot did that's caused this ripple effect months later. And after he dropped it the sound was also off, its too loud, inconsistent, and flutters
.I have to up the RPMs which then in turn use more gas and ovbiouly gets louder and pushes the engine harder
. Hopefully the addition of a adequate battery ( that is if don't get shanked when I get to the store ) and full adjustments of the cables will get it back to 100% as always, thank you in advance for all your help , patience and sharing your knowledge with us newbies

[Smell_It]

I have a 1997 Vs800. Have had it since 2003. On the second solenoid that I've had to buy and replace- in 18 years. Anyway- a multimeter is a best friend- can tell you where you have issues and where you don't- so you don't go blowing money that isn't needed. You can check that you have 12 Volts at the starter switch end that plugs into your starter solenoid, Also a separate test- you can check if you have continuity at the solenoid terminals while trying to crank-not an easy one man job- but I did it.

You will hear a light click when trying to start with a bad solenoid- In my experience. That small click is the fuel pump relay kicking. You wouldn't normally hear the fuel pump relay because the bike would be firing up.

I have replaced both my positive and negative battery cables because they rotted out at the terminal ends, causing no starts. I have been stranded when my start button broke and shot out but had tools- so I pulled my horn button from my left controls and flipped the horn button and made it my start button. I did get a new horn button but My start button is still an upside down horn button. I do Me. Rectifier crapped out- that's what takes the stator AC voltage and turns it into DC to charge the battery and power everything else. Been threw a few batteries over the year. I replaced my clutch plates myself a couple years back. I pull the wheels off my bike and take them in when I need new tires. I pull my front shocks off when I have a fork seal leak to have the seals replaced. --- So putting tires on my rims and Fork seals are about the only things I personally haven't done myself in those 18 years.

[Georgey]

I have a 1997 Vs800. ....

You will hear a light click when trying to start with a bad solenoid- In my experience. That small click is the fuel pump relay kicking. You wouldn't normally hear the fuel pump relay because the bike would be firing up.

.... Rectifier crapped out- that's what takes the stator AC voltage and turns it into DC to charge the battery and power everything else. ....

This sounds like the problem I'm currently having with my 97 VS....need to book mark this!