Electronic issues

[Anonymous]

Maybe you fellas can help me out here with my '85 GS550E.

A couple weeks ago my bike simply wouldn't start. It was working fine a couple days before, but suddenly it was just a sitting duck in the garage. I've got a new battery and the engine usually runs great, so I figured it must be an electrical problem. A friend of mine came over and got the bike started on a rolling start by dropping the clutch. After a couple minutes of warming up, the bike idled/ran fine. This pretty much confirmed my theory.

So, we took off the fairings and opened up the throttle. Everything inside the throttle was solidly soldered into place. We didn't have a voltometer, so there wasn't a concrete way of checking for a charge, but I know that the switches/wires are securely in place. Looking through every other wire brought on the same conclusion. All wiring was in place. Same story with the fuses. Nothing out of the ordinary.

What could be causing this? The damn thing runs nearly perfect once it gets going, so I figure this has to be a cheap repair.

[daveo]

pretty much start by cleaning all the major connections, ie. both at the battery, the hots at the starter relay, the ground strap to the engine and any other grounds to the frame you may have, anything that looks corroded at all etc. put some dielectric grease on them after cleaning to keep them from corroding

[vapourman]

drives you nuts

My 1150 would not crank about once every week or two. It turned out to be an intermittent starter solonoid for me. Also if you have to pull the clutch to start and any other switch that will stop it from cranking check these!!!. There was a lot of crap in my clutch switch. But a new craftsman tractor solonoid fixed my machine!!! (20 bucks as opposed to 80 bucks for a bike one)

[earlfor]

On the underside of the your clutch lever housing on the left handle bar is a small switch. It is a lockout so you cannot start the bike without pulling in the clutch. Its common for those little switches to get cranky with age. New ones are still available at the local dealer for about $10. Put a multimeter on the output lead from it to see if there is power when the lever is pulled in and the ignition switch is turned on.

Earl

[argonsagas]

Almost certain Earl's suggestion will fix it, but before replacing it, check the connectors from /to that switch. It may just have worked loose.