Bike won't start - electrical mastermind needed

[cabra]

When I hit the ignition for my 2007 250 Ninja the bike doesn't start and I hear a continuous buzzing/clicking sound that is coming from the solenoid. To troubleshoot this I have:
* Replaced the solenoid
* Connected the battery directly to the starter- starter cranked which tells me the starter is fine
* Tested with a new battery and cleaned the battery leads

Some observations:
- When I try to bypass the solenoid by shorting the leads the neutral light turns off and there is no more solenoid clicking or starter cranking
- When the clutch is in and I try to start the bike, the solenoid clicks one time and the solenoid closes & stays closed, and then it clicks again & opens when I release the start button. The neutral light turns off while the start button is pressed.
- The yellow wire with the red stripe feeding into the solenoid (signal wire?) gets 3V when the starter button is pressed.
- The thicker, white wire feeding into the solenoid gets a constant 12V with or without the starter button.

What is wrong with my bike? Thanks for the help

[DannoXYZ]

Originally Posted by cabra

When I hit the ignition for my 2007 250 Ninja the bike doesn't start and I hear a continuous buzzing/clicking sound that is coming from the solenoid.
...
- The yellow wire with the red stripe feeding into the solenoid (signal wire?) gets 3V when the starter button is pressed.

Dead battery. Should be +10v when cranking.

Try jump-starting from car-battery that can start car. Leave car engine off.

[Triple Jim]

From what you described, the battery itself is not the problem. To verify this, put a voltmeter on the battery terminals (directly on the battery's terminals, not the connectors attached) while trying to start the engine and let us know what it reads.

From the wiring diagram, it looks like the yellow wire with the red stripe should have battery voltage on it when the start button is pressed. To get there, the 12v has to go through the ignition switch, the kill switch, the starter button, and the starter relay in the junction box. A dirty connection anywhere in that chain could be causing the problem, as could a bad ground connection.

I don't know what you mean by "When I try to bypass the solenoid by shorting the leads..." If you short the starter solenoid leads while pressing the start button, you're shorting 12v to ground.

[DannoXYZ]

Originally Posted by cabra

* Connected the battery directly to the starter- starter cranked which tells me the starter is fine
- When I try to bypass the solenoid by shorting the leads the neutral light turns off and there is no more solenoid clicking or starter cranking

Do you mean you connect two large lugs on starter-solenoid?



One side (input) goes directly to battery +terminal.
Other side (output) goes directly to starter +power terminal.

By doing this, you connect battery +terminal to starter's +power terminal and have bypassed engine start/stop switch, start-button, clutch-switch, neutral-switch, starter-relay, starter-solenoid thereby eliminating them as contributors to your problem. Starter not cranking when you've shorted these solenoid terminals means battery is dead, kaput or cables between battery & starter is bad.



To test battery cables and solenoid to starter cable, do these tests to verify:

1. test battery voltage - connect voltmeter directly to battery +/- terminals. What is voltage? What is voltage when you short solenoid terminals?

2. test battery ground-cable - connect voltmeter to battery +terminal and ground to chassis bolt. What is voltage? What is voltage when you short solenoid terminals?

3. test battery to solenoid and solenoid to starter cables - connect voltmeter directly to starter +power terminal (use bare starter mounting bolt for ground). What is voltage when you short solenoid terminals?

If voltage when shorting solenoid terminals in #1, #2 and #3 test is same ~3v, then we can conclude that battery cables and cable between solenoid and starter are good and that battery is bad.

If voltage when shorting solenoid terminals in #1, #2 and #3 test is different , then cables are bad. Measure +voltage at each junction when shorting solenoid terminals and note voltage. The bad cable is the one with good full battery +voltage on one end, and ~3v on the other

Your previous tests combined with these may indicate one of these is bad:

- cable between battery and solenoid is bad
- or cable between solenoid and starter.

[cabra]

After reading through your replies and pulling out more hair, the culprit ended up being a bad ground. In hindsight the biggest clue to me should have been that the fact that the battery was fully charged but nothing happened when I connected the two solenoids leads together.

Thanks again for the help & I hope this thread can help others down the road.

[DannoXYZ]

Awesome! Which ground/cable was it?

[cabra]

It was the battery's ground. I cleaned where it met the frame and tightened the bolt and voila!