No response from starter solenoid?

[cthor]

I'm putting my bike back together and everything is working great. Except for the electric start. I checked all the grounds, jumped the starter wire directly to the positive terminal and got the bike started on the first start. The headlights work and all the lights work, minus the rear signals and brake lights bc I havent hooked them up yet. The bike starts first kick, with no complications but I seem to not have any response from the electric start. I cleaned the button and everything in the control module and they seem to be getting good ground bc the headlights/gauge lights all work with respect to their switches. The engine even shuts off when I flip the kill switch to off so I am a bit confused.

It seems like I have no response from starter solenoid. No clicks or anything at all. Is there any way from me to check if the solenoid is still working? Is the blue/white stripe wire from the electric start button the same blue/white stripe wire that goes to the solenoid?

Any help would be great! Thanks

1978 XS400

 

[16VGTIDave]

http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4503

Chapter 6 should help.

 

[phate]

I tested mine by jumping those blue/white and red/white (cant really remember the colors) wire terminals with a trickle charger as I was having a similar problem. Nothing happened so I bought one from eBay did the same thing and it clicked as expected. I put it in the bike and electric start has been working ever since

 

[cthor]

do you know which one is positive and which one is negative?

 

[cafenewb]

I posted about this in another thread. Generally I try not to make two similar posts in two threads, but I feel like this is warranted.

Phate, did you buy a used OEM one off ebay, or one of the new ones?
I've found some used OEM solenoids for about $20, and a brand new one that isn't OEM for about $10. Wondering your opinion on this? And, how universal this part is. If basically any xs400 of similar year could use the same one.

 

[phate]

@cthor yeh the red/white is positive with the blue/white being negative.
@cafenewb I bought a used oem from eBay that guaranteed it to work. As for a universal one I can't really tell you about fitment but a relay is a relay so as long as it operates on the same voltages/currents it should be fine.