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Another starting issue, different bike.

1K views 11 replies 4 participants last post by  NRWhit@Yahoo.com 
#1 ·
Hello, all...

If you are too lazy to read all of this or need visuals, I made a handy video explaining all of this:
https://youtu.be/onJU7ACHa-8

So, slight backstory, I recently purchased an '09 Vulcan 500 for the wife to ride. It has 12k miles, ran pretty well, The environment started taking it's toll on the exterior raw metals and chrome. In an effort to make it look cooler, I am in the process of sanding and painting everything rusty or tarnished.

I disassembled the controls on the handlebars, took pictures of how hey went, and placed the pieces neatly together. Sanded and painted the housings for what seemed like an eternity. Assembled everything back up and did the checks. Left horn and signal work, can't test high/low beam when bike isn't running. Go over to the other side, flip kill switch to run, key on, bike neutral, clutch, and press the starter button; nothing happens.

All of the signals come on, as well as the dash lights when the key is turned on. So I disassembled the housing again to check. A wire from the kill switch was slightly pinched, but did not tear hrough the casing. The red wire from the starter button apparently worked its way free of the soldering to the switch. I cleaned the area and manually held the wire to it's proper location while holding the button up against the switch and still had no response. I proceeded to use a soldering iron to remove all of the old soldering and tried to manually hold the wire in place and, again, no starting sounds.

I checked the main, acc, and ignition fuses, checked the battery at 12.61v, tried to jump the bike, worked the clutch, worked the kickstand, checked the wires at the starter switch (read 0.8v). I am running out of ideas.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!
 
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#12 ·
So, I can't seem to get the switch to close. I was able to check the voltage of the killswitch, which is around 12 and a half. I fiddle with the starter switch as many ways as I could figure out. I resoldered the wire into it, no bueno. I cut the pinched wire from the kill switch and soldered a new wire in place. I tried tracing the wires from the starter, but lose them under the tank until they hit the relay. The relay has voltage from the wires going to the starter. I also inadvertantly touched both with my multimeter, and the starter tried to turn the bike over. None of the fuses blew. So, it has to be that damn switch, the relay to the switch, or a shoddy ground.
 
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