Norge No Start

[abbienormal]

I went to start the Norge today with no success. Probably the last good weekend in NE Ohio coming up and it fails. Sure glad I have a 1998 Honda sitting in the garage. I turned it on and everything cycled fine. I hit the starter and it started to engage then nothing. Now, if I hit the starter button I can hear the relay click but nothing else. I checked and had power to the solenoid on the starter but when I hit the starter I don't seem to get any power to the motor itself. Holding the headlights to flash so they are on then hitting the starter gets no dimming of the headlights. All the gauges remain lit and if I turn on the turn signals they keep flashing. Using a fuse tester all the fuses under the seat checked good. I did not pull them out though so the possibility of a corroded fuse connection may still exist. I took the ground wires near the starter and wire brushed them clean. Any suggestions? I did a search but found nothing similar to this.

Rudy

[Rafael]

Hi Rudy

Sounds like your solenoid is hanging up. I just went thru this with my B11. It started during a road trip. I used a breaker bar to whack it (no starter cover) when it acted up -it worked. I later I tightened the battery terminals - worked fine for a couple of days but the symptoms came back, so I swapped out the starter. It works now, so I'll dismantle and clean up the starter on a raining day.

My bike only has 30k miles but it was housed in a barn with horses for the first 10k miles if its life. So, I expect it has some corrosion inside. What's with guzzis and barns anyway???

[abbienormal]

I tried hitting the solenoid with a 10mm T-Handle I had in my hand. Did not want to hit it any harder. Mine only has 22,000 miles and sits in a garage that is kept above freezing. Warmer when I work in there. I also suspect the solenoid. Just want to hear something better.

Rudy

[Mark_Sassafras]

Hi abbienormal,

this problem has been well documented. Check out the 'B11/Norge Startus Interruptess-the MPH Solution' thread.

Regards,
Mark.

[Brian UK]

Rewiring the start relay, if it hasn't been domne already, will help. But even then I did have a problem like this on the Norge. Turned out to be sticky dry grease in the solenoid, I cleaned it out and put some oil in there instead, and all has been good so far.

[blackcat]

How old is the battery?

[abbienormal]

Battery is fine. I know you say this is well documented but either the search function on this site is lousy or I have not a clue how to use it. I went to the home page and sis a search for Startus Interruptus (copied directly from the reply whereas I may have spelled it wrong here) and got one post, the one to me. Then I did a search for starter and scrolled through the results till I saw that statement and then went to those posts.
Yes a fix is discussed and apparently the relay circuit goes bad. No description how or what goes wrong but at least Tod sells a fix. I went out and checked. Sure enough no energizing current to the solenoid. I guess I need to call Todd. I could mess with it myself but if an easy fix is available and I can throw a couple of bucks to the guy that figured it out, why not?


Rudy

[john zibell]

It is a sticky topic under CARC

http://forum.guzzitech.com/forum/196/4908.html

[Brian UK]

The simple fix is to unplug the yellow wire from the start relay and replace it with a new wire direct from the battery positive terminal (ideally via an inline fuse) Tod's fix is a plug and play version of this.
The problem is that the yellow wire to the relay is fed via the ignition switch, and via a multitude of connectors on the way. Any or all of these can give a high resistance connection, particularly the switch contacts which are not rated for the current pulled by the solenoid. The above fix bypasses all this.

[abbienormal]

Thanks for the help on this. I find it unbelievable that a company would allow the same problem to exist for over 20 years when the fix involves adding an 8 inch wire to the harness and removing more than that from another lead. I pulled the yellow wire out of the connector and replaced it with another similar metal wire end that fit in the connector. I have an additional fuse box on my Norge for supplying power to the Powerlets I have in the fairing so I used an open fuse location and fed the power from there.