1980 GS850 Starter Cranks When Positive Terminal Connected

[Guest]

Hey guys,

was as wrapping up wiring and getting reading to throw the carbs on and fire up the bike for the first time in a while. When I went to connect the starter motor wire to the positive terminal she started cranking over. So I check to mark sure the starter solenoid had the red positive wire going to the fuse block and the positive battery terminal. Then made sure the ground to solenoid screw mount was done. So what could I be missing here? This is all in a new electronics tray I fabricated. Going to get a late lunch and think about it. Thanks guys for any help!!

[Steve]

Re-check your connections. The battery feed for the fuse box (red wire) might come from the battery end or the solenoid end of the large wire that goes from battery to solenoid. The other large wire goes to the starter. The case of the solenoid should be grounded, usually by a wire on the mounting bolt. The fourth connection to the solenoid is a yellow/green wire that comes from the starter button. Disconnect that wire, then try your connection that got the starter spinning the first time. If it still spins, you have a stuck solenoid.

The solenoid does not really have "positive" or "negative" terminals. It only has a "hot" terminal that connects to the battery, a "switched" terminal that goes to the starter, a "trigger" terminal that comes from the starter button and it needs a ground. In the GS solenoids, the ground is the metal body, which is usually mounted to a rubber-isolated plate on the battery, which requires the use of a separate ground wire. When I saw you last week, your tray was going to be securely mounted to the frame. If it is, you can just bolt the solenoid to the tray, but it certainly would not hurt anything to run a redundant ground wire to be sure.

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[Kodak]

Well it looks like my grounds are right. Is there any other way to check for the solenoid being bad? It was working just fine two months ago.

[Kodak]

Got it. Well at least I can be confident in my ignorance. Told newbie mistake. Wrap it up boys nothing to see here....

[Sam Dorn]

Re-check your connections. The battery feed for the fuse box (red wire) might come from the battery end or the solenoid end of the large wire that goes from battery to solenoid. The other large wire goes to the starter. The case of the solenoid should be grounded, usually by a wire on the mounting bolt. The fourth connection to the solenoid is a yellow/green wire that comes from the starter button. Disconnect that wire, then try your connection that got the starter spinning the first time. If it still spins, you have a stuck solenoid.

The solenoid does not really have "positive" or "negative" terminals. It only has a "hot" terminal that connects to the battery, a "switched" terminal that goes to the starter, a "trigger" terminal that comes from the starter button and it needs a ground. In the GS solenoids, the ground is the metal body, which is usually mounted to a rubber-isolated plate on the battery, which requires the use of a separate ground wire. When I saw you last week, your tray was going to be securely mounted to the frame. If it is, you can just bolt the solenoid to the tray, but it certainly would not hurt anything to run a redundant ground wire to be sure.

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Can it be because of battery? Is it possible that the battery just being expired? I am seriously thinking of replacing one on something from https://www.icrfq.com/category/2 , but I am a complete noob here. Thanks in advance.