new battery and bike won't start..need help

[Scurfieb]

Hey all,
So I bought an 81 xs400 at the end of March. I haven't been able to ride it because I broke my wrist, but the day I bought it I rode it a bit around town and the bike ran perfectly. I broke my wrist the next day. I went out and tried to start the bike a week ago and it didn't start. I figured it was a dead battery and so I charged it and it fired right up. I rode it for about twenty minutes and was heading back home when the bike died at a stop light. It wouldn't kick start or electrical start.

Now I got a new battery just hoping it would be a simple fix, but after installing the new battery there is zero electrical power (neutral light won't even blink at me).

Now I am new to the world of motorcycles and was wondering if anybody could help me out before I take it somewhere and they charge me an arm and a leg.

Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[xschris]

First thing would be to check fuses and ground wires.

 

[Scurfieb]

I don't want to sound like an idiot but how do I do that?

 

[LuckyEight]

Under the seat there is little black box (fusebox)...open it and check all fuses...

 

[willem]

First off, try to eliminate the obvious problems. Check if you put the battery the right way around (red to +, black to - lead). Spray some WD40 or electrics spray in your keyhole. It doesn't sound like it's the killswitch, but check if you didn't accidentally hit that one.

Get an electrics tester (voltmeter/current meter/whatever you call it). Look under the seat (open it with the key and the hook next to the seat keyhole) and find your fusebox there. Measure the fuses for connectivity. Have a look around under the seat and around the battery for any wires that look corroded, and look around the connectors especially. Measure the voltage of your battery, it should be 12.6 V at least. 12.0 V is not enough, that's an empty battery. Also measure it while turning the key to 12 o'clock position (so when your lights should be on). there should be a slight drop in voltage on your battery. Press the start button and keep measuring. If your battery ever drops below 9V, it's just dead. New batteries can be dead too, I had that not too long ago. Just take it back to where ever you got it, and they'll most likely give you a new one for free.

If the voltage on the battery stays 12.6 or more volts at all times, your bike just doesn't turn on anymore. That can be the main fuse being blown, your main switch not functioning (that's the keyhole btw) or your battery being disconnected from the system in some way. Fuse is easiest to check, after that you'll have to trace your way through the spaghetti. If you can't find anything obvious around the battery, I'd start with opening up the main switch. Most of the time, there is a ground wire that's corroded which causes the problems.

 

[Scurfieb]

Thank you so much guys. I will go and look into all of this today. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Scurfieb]

I wanted everyone to know that I fix the bike and she's running like a champ. The problem turned out to be that the wire connecting to the main fuse was detached from the metal casing the fuse goes in. Not by much so that's why I missed it. Ended up soldering it back in place and now its starts every time. Now I need to figure out why both front and rear blinkers aren't working and maybe a little customization. Any thoughts?

 

[Bizzy13]

Blinkers are probably a fuse or faulty wiring as well. Unless someone updated them and not the flasher unit. Customizing, *wrings hands* my specialty. Bwahahahah!!!! All depends on how radical you wanna get 0.0