Bike wont start. GS500, please help!

[_Troy_]

Well I had some issues previously, but they seemed to be solved. But no.

Right so the bike won't start at all. It's gotten to the point that the starter won't even turn over. Absolutely nothing happens when I press the starter button. The neutral light is on.

The lights also come on fine, but seem a tad dim. When I jump start the bike from a car it starts immediately. No hesitation, and the bike runs fine.

But, the battery is only a couple of months old. So if it is dead, there must be another reason behind it, surely? It does have a tiny bit of charge though, as you can see from the lights, so surely it would try to start, even just a little...

I've checked all wires and fuses, and they seem fine. I've had a look at the solenoid, but I'm not really surer what I'm looking for. It looks a bit corroded, but only to the extent of years of water damage. It's in a bit of an annoying place on the GS, so it's difficult to tell.

Is it worth sticking a new battery in, and just going from there. Or should i get someone to look at the solenoid?

This whole situation is really starting to annoy me. I only have the odd weekend to have a goat sorting this, so I've been off the bike for weeks with this issue. On that note, absolutely any useful information would be excellent, and I'll reward such stuff with Christmas cheer.
____________________
Current bike: ZX6R J1
Previous bikes: CLR 125 | GS500 | ZX6R G2 | SV650

[demon9374]

I didn't try jumping it from a car (when I had my RS 125).. People said it was a duff battery, I got a charger, one of the maintainers that can recover them, waste of £30.. It wasn't to do with the battery. It was a brush inside the starter motor, it'd snapped in half, springs that keep it against the armiture had gone & the armiture needed a clean up, sorted all that out in 5 mins, bike started fine, as with brushes, if not touching properly, then there's a bad earth and nothing with get through to it from the starter relay.

All that said, it's gay, I swapped my RS for something reliable, a Honda.. Now I've had loads of hassle with that, newest one, not starting on the button. I'm going to hazzard a guess at the same situation as the RS, as I've charged this battery aswell, even though the battery was fully charged to begin with. Too cold to piss about with atm though.

Swapped an unreliable Aprilia for a Honda XR (CG Engine) after a week of having it, front sprocket fell off, puncture in back tyre, not electric starting lol

If it's easier than looking at the solenoid, try taking the starter motor off and inspecting the brushes. One thing ruled out then..

[mysterious_rider]

Sounds like the charger coil inside the statorplate has gone.

Funnily enough prev owner of my gs500 had to have the stator rewound in 2003. So could be a common problem.

[_Troy_]

Cheers for the help so far, have some Christmas cheer.

If it does turn out to be the starter, is it a good idea to replace it then?

Oh I should add that a couple of weeks ago it would attempt to start maybe once, and then nothing. Didn't sound like there was enough power, or that something wasn't kicking in.
____________________
Current bike: ZX6R J1
Previous bikes: CLR 125 | GS500 | ZX6R G2 | SV650

[mysterious_rider]

If you said it would start and run fine when using jump cables, then it's obviously either a dead battery (you've pretty much ruled that out though with replacing it already!!) or the statorplate not charging the battery while running. Obvs the battery will eventually go flat, hence your problems.


My money is on the statorplate needs new coils. You could always try a multimeter on the charging wires and read the OHMS that it gives off. Not sure what it should read though.

[_Troy_]

Well the new battery sorted it for a couple of months, but since the wet/cold weather this mess started happening.

So the battery could well be dead, but like you say something else is causing it not to hold a charge.

I jumped it last week and went on a 2 hour jolly, hoping it would charge. Got home, tried to start it again straight away, nothing. Not even a peep.
____________________
Current bike: ZX6R J1
Previous bikes: CLR 125 | GS500 | ZX6R G2 | SV650

[Robby]

It started right off when you jumped it off a car, so there is nothing wrong with the starter motor or solenoid. Your problem is with the battery or charging system.

Is it a lead acid battery or a sealed one? Did you charge it for a good few hours when you first got it?

Anyway, charging system test. First, charge the battery overnight so that you can get vaguely reliable readings during the test.

Multimeter set to volts across the battery terminals. You are looking for the following readings:

1. Everything turned off, look for about 12V.
2. Engine idling, look for 12-13V
3. Engine at 4000 rm, look for 13-14.5V.

If the voltage stays at 12.5V or below during tests, it isn't charging. If it goes above 30V, your reg rec has failed.

Possible (likely) reason for not charging is rec/rec failure - they can fail so they overcharge the battery, or fail so they don't charge at all. Failure to charge can also be down to a knackered stator, but a reg/rec is cheaper and easier to change. Try and borrow one off someone else to test.

A healthy battery will let the bike run about an hour or two with the headlights on if it isn't charging.

Another possibility is corrosion somewhere, most likely on an earth point.

[MickC]

As Robby has already said check your charging system.
____________________
XX XXXx
Previous: CG125,XS250 (converted to 400),Z250A, GPZ550, Norton Commando, XS500, 78 Laverda Jota, GPZ1100,Harris bonneville, XV750 (mono shock),TR1

[_Troy_]

Now THATs more like it. The sort of answer that makes sense to what I've been thinking. Cannot thankyou enough. Glad it's not the solenoid or starter, that at least rules them out. I'll get the battery on charge and see how it goes.

Oh when I first got it the battery was set to trickle charge overnight at my local dealer, so assuming that can't have done it any damage.

Anyway, thanks Robby. Let me know where you live and I'll ride over to give you a Xmas hug.
____________________
Current bike: ZX6R J1
Previous bikes: CLR 125 | GS500 | ZX6R G2 | SV650

[orac]

you can check you alternator too, disconect the three yellow wires that come from your engine to the reg/rec, set tyour multi meter to ac voltage. you should have at least 75v ac across all of them.

alos with the engine off, check that you have between 3 and 5 ohsm across the same wires. testing the voltage isnt always a fail safe, i had runner put out the correct voltage but wasnt charging due to no resistence on the coils.

another thing the haynes manual suggests is to put you multi meter between the positive terminal and the poistive wire, with the multi meter set to mA and the ignition off, the readin should not exceed 0.1
____________________
Current rides - 2016 Triumph Street Triple Rx, 1994 Suzuki Bandit 400 VM, TGB 204 Classic 125cc
"with nothing left to lose, there is everything to gain. It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog"

[Gothtec]

Agreed check the charging system

If a new battery solved the problem then its likely its your rectifier...If it is faulty it can kill the battery, even a new one!
____________________
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10% discount at www.globalbikeonline.com, use promo code gboaw10 at the checkout!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[_Troy_]

Right guys, finally got the time to check all this today.

When I first tested the battery, it was putting out about 10.5V.

Jump started the bike, and when the engine had warmed up it was sat around 12.5, however when I revved the bike it dropped to about 10.5.

I then took the bike for a 10 minute blast up the dual carriageway. On return I immediately tested the battery again. It read around 12.5-13V, and when revved it jumped up slightly to around 14.V.

Upon trying to start the bike immediately after turning it off, nothing. No charge at all. I promptly jumped it again, went for a very long ride, and repeated the process. Again it didn't start once stopped.

Plugging another battery in started the bike instantly too, indicating that it is definitely the charging system, surely?

I haven't had the chance to check the other bits, but thought I'd report back in case this changes anything. As always any helped will be rewarded with hugs.
____________________
Current bike: ZX6R J1
Previous bikes: CLR 125 | GS500 | ZX6R G2 | SV650

[orac]

another thing you could try is, take a feed from the +v side of the batter to red wire on the reg/rec. if for some reason (broken wire or bad connection) the reg/rec isnt getting that feed the battery ont charge.

i had this issue on my bandit, making that fly lead up solved the issue - just as well make a lead up for the ground side to to the reg/rec - battery too

then start by checking the alternator. if it th reg/rec i would advise replacing it with a handa super dream one - they seem to be the best one you can do for just about anything
____________________
Current rides - 2016 Triumph Street Triple Rx, 1994 Suzuki Bandit 400 VM, TGB 204 Classic 125cc
"with nothing left to lose, there is everything to gain. It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog"