Starter won't work Ground wires melting?

[Anonymous]

I have a 81 GS850G the starter solinoid just click's when I hit the start button, if I hit it a few times the ground wire starts smoking. I tried jumping across with a screw driver to get it to start, but it just sparks and gets hot. what would cause the ground wires on the solinoid to get hot? any Ideas on what's wrong ?

[SqDancerLynn1]

Chances are the starter (Brushes) are bad

http://www.cyclewareables.com/pages/street_startermotor_repair_kits/startmtrkit.htm

[Clone]

Or it could have siezed for some reason. Pull it out and see if it turns, open it up and look at the condition of the innards.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info I tried the starter with it out and no go. The shaft isn't frozen it turns just fine by hand. I am going to look into a possible bad ground. If anyone else has any ideas let me know.

Thanks,

[SqDancerLynn1]

Hook the starter up to the battery with it out of the bike, you will I think still find the brushes bad

[Anonymous]

I will give that a try later today.

[Anonymous]

put the starter in a vice first or it could spin out of your hands.

ooouuuch

[Anonymous]

Great news!

Here's what I found out I had 2 problems, the first was the ground problem which was causing a wire to get hot. The the previous owner had done some rewiring after having his R/R fry on him along with a bunch of wiring. What he had done was put a ground wire onto one of the terminals on the starter relay. The other problem was the starter needed to be rebuilt. Luckly I had picked one up on Ebay a few weeks ago. After I corrected the wiring and bolted the starter in, it was like magic the starter kicked it over unlike I had ever had with this bike. Even in the morning when it was cold it fired right up in a 1/2 second. it used to take half the battery charge to start it in the morning. One thing I found out, just for your information the starter needs to be bolted down so it can ground to the frame or it wont work.
Thanks for the suggestions and help.