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Stranded HELP, starter relay

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Busted down at the motel. We thought we would take a look to see why Trevors 83 1100 bike won't start with the start button. We took the connections off the starter relay. Now when we put them back to where we thought they went things just start to spark....arrrr. We can't download a wiring diagram from cliffs site to my phone for some reason so if anyone can be of help it would be hugely appreciated. The only thing that makes sense is we are putting the wires back on wrong, don't know how though but I've done dumber things before. There's one positive wire one wire from the starter, two wires coming from the harness and one wire from the negative terminal.weird thing is trevors positive wire is on the oposite terminal on the relay when compared to my 1000G
 
it shouldnt really matter which cable goes on which post. battery to one, starter to the other. when you hit the button it latches them together.

if you have 2 smaller wires i guess 1 is a ground for the relay and the other is the 12v switched supply from the starter button.

sorry if this is no help to you.......
 
I'm up early, I'll see if I can help, lets start with all the wires, rather than try and do a proper repair at the hotel, let's get you back home, tape up all wire ends so nothing makes contact with anything(do not re-hook them up) except the 2 large pos wires, the one from the bat to the solenoid and the one going to the starter, key on, the touch(arc and sparks) them together will turn over the starter and start the bike, when the bike is started, tape those 2 up(separately) so you can ride it home. If you have long distance service to the US on either of your cell phones, like I said, I'm up, I can pull up a electrical diagram for you and talk to you on the phone. I'm pm-ing you my number.
Rich
 
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Where are you guys ? Do you need tools, multi meter, beer etc. ?
 
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Seems a bit late for this tidbit, but in a pinch, you can use a screwdriver to short across the two main posts on the starter relay, which should get the starter motor turning. Once you get home you can take your time and fix the wiring as needed.
 
azr said:
We took the connections off the starter relay. Now when we put them back to where we thought they went things just start to spark....arrrr.
Click to expand...
Please clarify which of the two pair of wires are sparking when connected. Is it the large or small set of wires?

Connect each of the two larger wires to the starter solenoid one at a time (as was said, it doesn't matter which cable connects to which post). When you connect the last of those two wires up, does it spark then? If so, the solenoid is bad AND it will either crank if the starter is good, or it won't if the starter is bad OR the solenoid is shorted internally to ground.

Daniels picture will show you where to connect the smaller wires.
 
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Ok I'm up, I'll take all the suggestions and see what I can sort out. Thanks again, this is yet another reason why I like this site!
 
Just to clarify from the previous posts:
Your solenoid will have 3-4 wires connected to it. 2 will be heavy gauge (thick). The heavy gauge wires go to the posts (threaded connections using nuts and lock washers).
1 goes to the battery. 1 goes to the starter. I would proceed in this manner:
First, touch the heavy gauge wire from the battery to one of the posts. As mentioned before, which one does not matter. If it sparks, your solenoid is bad. Replace it with one for a garden tractor. If it does not spark, put the lock washer and nut on it and tighten it up.
Second, touch the heavy gauge wire from the starter to the other post. If it sparks, your starter is bad. Push start the bike and get it home. If it does not spark, put the lock washer and nut on it and tight it up.
Third, there is usually one smaller gauge wire that goes to the starter button. It is usually a spade connector. When the key is on and you press the starter button, your multimeter should show ~12V.
That is really all there is to a solenoid, which is actually just a high current relay.
 
So we found some ****ty grounds and such and and extra wire someone put in from the neg on the battery. Can someone tell me where the two black/white wires go that come from the main wiring harness. They come out right by the battery/relay. I remember one going to the front battery box bolt but where does the other go??
 
azr said:
So we found some ****ty grounds and such and and extra wire someone put in from the neg on the battery. Can someone tell me where the two black/white wires go that come from the main wiring harness. They come out right by the battery/relay. I remember one going to the front battery box bolt but where does the other go??
Click to expand...

Is the main rubber mounted plate that holds all the electrical gubbins earthed? There will need to be one there, mine goes through the R/R bolt hole.
 
tatu said:
Is the main rubber mounted plate that holds all the electrical gubbins earthed? There will need to be one there, mine goes through the R/R bolt hole.
Click to expand...

Grounding the plate fixed an intermittent starting problem on the 1100G I gave to my brother. Ring terminal on the solenoid bolt, and one on the battery, plus a jumper to the frame.
 
We got it starting on its own. Yeah!!! Thanks for all the help guys. Gsr and its members continue to impress me so much! We will post more when we get home.
Trevor
 
Please post pictures of your internet roaming bill at the end of the month. That I gotta see......:p
 
azr said:
So we found some ****ty grounds and such and and extra wire someone put in from the neg on the battery. Can someone tell me where the two black/white wires go that come from the main wiring harness. They come out right by the battery/relay. I remember one going to the front battery box bolt but where does the other go??
Click to expand...

If you look at the attachment to the first post in GS Charging health

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showpost.php?p=1138531&postcount=1

It gives and example of GS1100E grounding on the side plate. The side plate/solenoid bracket is basically the system ground because the R/R is mounted to it and grounded to it. There is a B/W wire from the harness going to the same ground plate at the solenoid bolt.

This is the reason I pull all those grounds together and put them oat a common point usually the R/R mounting bolt. I use that bolt (vs. the solenoid bolt) because the R/R ground is more important (to charging) than the solenoid ground (only used to activate the starter)

However if you don't have the solenoid bracket grounded one way or another (which seems to be your problem) the solenoid and in turn the starter will not activate.
 
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Like Trevor said guys, thanks a ton for the support. It was a late night that night and nothing was making sense in my head. So..Trevor had been having starting problems the week before, when his bike heated up sometimes the start button wouldn't start up the bike until you get it minute to cool down a bit so he was telling me. So, I had starter in my head. Then he couldn't start the bike at all except by bumping it. Relay or Starter I was thinking. That night we pulled the relay as we could hear it clicking when trying to start it with the start button. There was an extra wire from the negative battery terminal to the relay, I guess what must have happened is it was touching the positive wires causing the sparking. With your guys help I just cleaned things up and put the stock wires back where they belonged and we had starter action. Then we lost it. Took a quick look his main ground wire to the battery and it was black, simple clean up and all the lights were green and the starter was working as it should! bit of a headache to get there but sure felt good to have power again. Good advice on the grounding suggestion, I do that on all my bikes. Really Trevor should do a wiring harness clean up I think and do the single grounding point, as well check his coil voltage and do the coil relay mod if needed. Well, we had a great ride with some fun times bump starting and 'other' issues. Some good IPA beer and fantastic roads. Thanks again guys.
 
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