Battery Problem?

[Satx750]

New here. Recently bought a 1978 GS750E. I'm trying to get it to fire up but I have no power. Charged the battery, no luck. Used a good battery from a Sportster, no luck. Used my car battery to jump the bike, no luck. Here's the weird part. With the fresh battery and even the car battery, the starter button is dead, no headlight etc. When I bridge the terminals on the selenoid, the engine barely cranks over. At a loss, the bike fired up last week. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Agemax]

it sounds like you need to check ALL your connections are clean and tight and check your fuses

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. Satx750,

It sounds like you have a lot of maintenance to do. This will help:

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Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[tom203]

Satx said..."when I bridge the terminals on the selenoid, the engine barely cranks over. At a loss, the bike fired up last week. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. "

Since it was running and now suddenly struggles to crank, check for gas leaking out of carbs and filling a cylinder causing lockup.

[OldVet66]

Check your main battery ground. The factory part was wimpy to begin with. That's where I started, replacing it with a # 4 AWG wire. Corrosion and broken strands under the battery terminals can cause that behavior, then work your way through the rest of the harness, fuse box and switches. If shorting the solenoid barely turns it over, you are loosing power before it gets there or the starter is going bad. If that's the case it will most likely be getting real hot.

[Agemax]

Satx said..."when I bridge the terminals on the selenoid, the engine barely cranks over. At a loss, the bike fired up last week. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. "

Since it was running and now suddenly struggles to crank, check for gas leaking out of carbs and filling a cylinder causing lockup.

he did say he has lost ALL electrics.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

The main ground strap runs from the negative battery terminal to a bolt on the underside of the rear of the crankcase. Make sure that is clean and tight. But in general, yes, go over the entire wiring harness, check and clean all grounds and connectors. Take off the fuel tank and side covers so you can really get a good visual inspection. Once you have the wiring harness cleaned up, move on to the other maintenance items necessary for a 30 year old motorcycle.

Fusebox Cleanup

Cleaning Your Wiring Harness

How To Repair Your Wiring Harness



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[tom203]

he did say he has lost ALL electrics.

Sure, but he also doubled up on battery power and it "barely cranked over" with solenoid jumped- no electrics needed!

[Agemax]

Sure, but he also doubled up on battery power and it "barely cranked over" with solenoid jumped- no electrics needed!

if it was a hydraulic lock up it wouldn't crank at all! barely cranking indicates cranking very slowly to me........

[Satx750]

I have no fuse box?

Thank you all for your input. I started to inspect the loom. Looks like the previous owner spliced in some wires, all red colored, and removed the fuse box. Thinking about finding a complete loom and swapping it in. Any leads on a loom and a fuse box would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all again.

[Agemax]

Thank you all for your input. I started to inspect the loom. Looks like the previous owner spliced in some wires, all red colored, and removed the fuse box. Thinking about finding a complete loom and swapping it in. Any leads on a loom and a fuse box would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all again.

try an ad in the wanted section on this site and have a search on ebay, should be easy enough to find i would think