She's No For Starting- Help!

My bike has been giving me jip for the last week and I am running out of ideas on what to try. Think I have covered the usual suspects but still won't start. It is an 04 carb'd Bonneville.

I was riding home last week, everything seemingly going fine with the bike, when I stopped I notice the neutral light didn't come one when I put the bike in neutral which I thought was weird. Turned off the bike and back on again to see if it would come on but nothing, no neutral light and a complete refusal to start.

On turning the ignition on I am not getting the usual neutral light or oil pressure light. I am however getting headlight and tail light fine, full beam and indicator lights on the cluster are also lighting up fine when engaged. When I try to start the bike all I am getting is a loud clink/clunk from the starter relay under the left panel. There is not a bit of noise from the engine even trying to turnover and there is no dimming of the headlights when the button is pressed. I've checked the battery and it seems fine (12.4V). Checked all the fuses then cleaned and refitted them. Replaced the headlight relay for the ignition and tried bypassing it. Tried bypassing the side stand switch. Replaced the starter relay. I checked the neutral sensor and it may be faulty, when I connect the cable to ground it lights the indicator light but when hooked to the sensor I can't get the neutral indicator light to come on. Even with this sensor cable hooked to ground though I cannot get the bike to start at all. I've gone through and cleaned/reseated every connector in the headlight shell and under the seat.

As I say, running out of things to try, suggestions?


PS my bike was playing up before Sam's, if anything he is copying me

 

Check the battery voltage
Sounds like a flat battery.

 

Recharging the battery now, checked it when it wouldn't start last week straight after running fine and the battery was ok. Also why would the battery stop the neutral and oil pressure lights but not all other lighting?

 

Yup, tried clutch in and out plus side stand up and down and combinations of the above. Checked the continuity on the clutch safety switch and it seems fine

 

Will it bump start ?

 

Not tried bump starting yet but it doesn't even sound like it is trying so not sure a bump start would work.

 

Worth trying.

 

Avoided bump starting so far because my bike is parked on a cobbled hill and I weigh about as much as an underfed child. Pushing it around will be a challenge.

 

Had pretty much similar, bought a second hand 2012 Bonneville, had it about a month. One day after a 40 minute ride out. Stopped for coffee and eats, came back after an hour...... click, nothing.
Jumped started bike, got it home, but no amount of charging would bring the battery back to life.
New battery and back to normal.

 

Cobbled hill sounds good, but you might need a mate with you in case you have to push it back up the cobbles.
Give it a go, my Bonnie started every time when I had to bump start, smart charger and new battery is probably the answer along with a thorough check on the battery connections.

 

Ask the guy from the Hovis advert, he'll help you

 

Have you checked the handlebar kill switch Dan ?

 

Aye Tez, checked the kill switch and it appears fine. Clicking from relay/solenoid only happens when the switch is set to run so guessing the switch is working

 

Can you jump start it from another battery?

 

Got one of those wee jump starter battery packs, going to leave the battery charging over night and have a go in the morning

 

Starting System Symptoms:

Weak battery symptoms:
-- Slow cranking.
-- Stops cranking suddenly on compression stroke with button pressed.
-- Starts when starter button is released at end of cranking.
Repair:
-- Charge/Test/Replace battery.
Failure Modes:
-- Loss of capacity. Appears to charge, voltage good but no reserve for starting.
-- Won't hold a charge.
-- Low voltage/cell failure.
Preventative Maintenance:
-- Check fluid levels regularly
-- Maintain full charge: Regular riding, trickle charger.

Ignition Coil failure symptoms:
-- Hard starting/misfiring during cranking.
-- Rough idle that can't be tuned out with carb adjustments and carb cleaning.
-- Idle misfire clears with new sparkplugs, returns in a few hundred miles
Repair:
-- Replace: Preferably with Nology for higher reliability than stock Gill coils.
Failure Mode:
-- Shorted turns in secondary resulting in weak spark.
Preventative Maintenance:
-- None
Testing:

Pickup Coil failure symptoms:
-- No spark at all
-- Spark quits with engine hot, returns when engine cool.
-- Note: Pickup coil failure is total. There is no random misfire spark loss.
Repair:
-- Replace pickup coil
Failure mode:
-- Thermal intermittant with long (15-30 minute) period.
Preventative Maintenance:
-- None. Get a spare.
Testing:
-- Ohms checks hot and cold.

Worn starter symptoms:
-- Sometimes won't crank until the bike is rocked in gear.
-- Excessively noisy cranking with a grinding sound.
-- Click from under seat but no cranking.
Failure Mode:
-- Brush wear progressing to commutator damage.
-- Bearing failure related to brush wear.
Repair:
-- Rebuild or replace.
Preventative Maintenance:
-- Maintan battery in peak condition.
-- Follow proper starting procedures. Neutral, clutch in.
-- Crank 5-10 seconds at a time max., switch off for twice as long before cranking again.

Worn sprag clutch symptoms:
-- Very loud rattling when cranking
-- Starter spins but engine doesn't turn
Falure Mode:
-- Breakage
Repair:
-- Replace sprag clutch
Preventative Maintenance:
-- Maintain battery in peak condition.
-- Follow proper starting procedures. Neutral, clutch in.

Worn starter solenoid:
-- Click from under seat but no cranking.
-- Won't crank after rocking bike.
-- Starter continues to run after bike starts and won't stop until the battery is disconnected.
Failure mode:
-- Internal contact damage resulting in non-conduction.
-- Internal contact damage resulting in contacts welding shut.
-- Internal damage/wear prevents solenoid core movement.
Preventative Maintenance:
-- None.
Repair:
-- Replace starter solenoid.
Testing:
-- For no cranking, short across solenoid high-power terminals. Normal operation denotes failed solenoidcontacts.

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Hope you copied and pasted all that

 

So do I otherwise for a Scotsman at 11.30 pm on a Saturday night that's just a waste of unit pricing on alcohol !!! lol

 

Cheers for that @Sprinter, either starter motor or solenoid problems sound most like what I'm experiencing since there is a click but no cranking at all. Did try shorting across the solenoid terminals but got nothing and as I say tried a new solenoid. Will see what a freshly charged battery does for it.

Still feel like the sudden loss of oil and neutral idiot lights is indicative of something and there might be something playing silly buggers in the starter safety circuit (with neutral sensor, side stand, clutch etc). If the starter had failed surely these lights would still operate normally?

 

My prime suspect - especially at this time of year - is the side-stand switch. Check the plunger is not seized in its depressed position (you will need the sidestand up and a pair of pliers to wiggle it out). The cure is a WD40 bath with much more of the aforementioned wiggling then packing with dielectric grease. And, obviously, pull the rubber cap to clean/grease the piston switch.
Second string suspect is the clutch plunger switch.