My XT600E Electric Start problems
Hi all,
Quick intro:
Come from a family of motorcycles, drive my dad's Harley all the time and have had a scooter for the last 9 years. My cousin has the xt600e from 2000, and on Saturday i got myself a 2002 XT600E. Saturday was amazing! I picked it up in the north of England and drove it to The Lake District on its first day with my girlfriend for Valentines.
The problems:
First time refueling turned the engine/ignition off and had no trouble restarting the bike. The second time turning the bike off was a "pee break" and tried turning the bike on for 20 minutes. Every time I clicked the ignition button, i would hear a single clicking sound (Solenoid/relay cutting power) and then nothing. Eventually trying the same thing worked, and off we went. Starter motor got the bike going first time...
Sunday morning the bike didn't start again. I parked on a hill so rolled it down and bump started it. The bike ran flawlessly afterwards.
Refueling when needed, we made our way slowly down to London. Everytime we refueled i turned off the bike and had increasing trouble bump starting. Finally in Birmingham some guys from KTM even helped us at the service station but we failed to bump start the bike after 2 hours. We also tried jump starting it (their battery, and then the breakdown recovery guys jump cables too) and it didnt work. This indicates there is a problem in the starting circuit, excluding the battery.
After reading online, i did the following:
Tried seeing for bad connections, but i was useless at it. I couldnt even follow the cables properly to earth, etc.. to see if i could make the connections better..
I got a volt meter and tested the battery:
12.8V on its own
12.1 with lights on (full beam)
Then i checked voltage drop for possible bad connections. Connecting the positive to the positive terminal of the battery, the voltage difference was the following:
0V untill the battery connection on the solenoid/relay (as hoped)
12.8V to the starter motor end of the solenoid/relay (as expected)
Then i kept the multimeter setup and tried to e-start the bike.
Voltage drop to the starter motor end of relay dropped to around 3V and then back to 12.8V after the clicking sound as expected (since the circuit got broken) Does this mean the solenoid is in good condition? I saw one 30A fuse and an empty fuse container so i bought another 30A fuse and slot it on the top. That made no difference.
Then today i got a cheap jump cable (max 16A) and turned the ignition on, the engine kill switch to "run" and connected the positive terminal of the battery to the starter motor end of the relay. The starter motor made absolutely no engaging at all and no sound at all. Does this mean it is the starter motor that is broken?
I am afraid that is where the evidence points, but i am hopeful someone here manages to find another solution. I say this because i think a new starter motor would be expensive.
Any help or advice?
Thank you for your patience reading this novel
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