No life from electrical system

[SBjerg]

I have recently experienced some electrical issues....after a cold winter of sitting in my garage I went to start my bike (1983 400 seca) and it seemed to to be struggling as if the battery was dead, and had some evident clicking from the starter solenoid. Naturally I charged up the battery and on my second attempt there was no life, not even a glimmer from the head light or gauges. Also will note that the battery was new last fall.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[bcware]

Did you leave the battery in the bike all winter?

 

[bentwrench]

No life at all - check your fuses, and your ground connections.

 

[SBjerg]

I did not, i had on a battery maintainer.

 

[Drewcifer]

You can jump start a bike with a non running car's battery. Just long enough to start it with a kickstarter. If that doesn't work, you need to check the spark by pulling attaching a spare spark plug to the plug lead (leave the one you have in, it's easier then removing, replacing, removing...) and pressing it to the engine and kicking the bike over. If it's button only you'll have to remove the cover that says yamaha on the left side, and manually turn the crank around to see if you get a spark on left, TDC.

If, when you kick the bike over, there is no spark, you have a major issue and need to start at zero. Zero is taking off the left crank cover and doing a manual verification of your timing to find out if you have spark. No spark means no more work because you have some serious trouble to solve right there.

Go do, get back to us.