Starting Problems...

[Jeffrey99]

I have a 2000 400ex...motor as far as I know is stock...only things thats been added is a White Brothers E Series pipe....but anyway...when I try to start it...it just makes a clicking sound...theres a little round thing(LOL sorry don't know the technical term) to the left of the battery that you can see dirt fall off of...When I first got it I had this problem...cleaned that thing really well...and it went away...Today i decided to go play in the snow and it done it again...is there something going bad that I need to change? or any tips?

Thanks In advance,
Jeffrey

[Jeffrey99]

bump....anybody?

[Jonas]

That's your starter relay and probably not your problem. If you bridge the gap between the two "posts" on the relay without shocking yourself and the bike starts, then it is your relay. Do you have a battery charger that will charge at 2ah or less?

[rev]

try tapping it with a screwdriver/wrench then hit the button.sounds crazy but it worked for me.

[Rico]

sounds like a bad ground to me....:cool: Clean all connections and I bet it fires up.

[wilkin250r]

It may be helpful for you to know what a relay IS and what it DOES.

You know what a switch is, right? It has two terminals (connections), and when the switch is "on" it will allow electricity to flow from one terminal to the other.

A relay is much the same, except you don't flick it "on" with your finger. It has four terminals, and applying power to two terminals allows electricity to flow through the other two terminals. For example, if you wanted to use one just like your light switch, you hook up the wires for the light to terminals 1 and 2. To turn the light on, you apply power to terminals 3 and 4, and it will allow electricity to flow from terminal 1 to terminal 2. Terminals 3 and 4 (the ones that activate the relay) are called the "coil", and terminals 1 and 2 are called the "contacts". Power to the coil will close the contacts and allow electricity to flow through the contacts.

Your starter pulls HUGE amounts of electricity from the battery. That's why you have huge wires connecting to your battery. Your button cannot handle all that power, it would fry. So you hook the starter button to coil of your relay, and your actual starter wires to the contacts. When you hit your starter button, it will apply power to the coil (which is just like flicking your switch "on") and allow electricity to flow to your starter.

So, a relay is just like a switch. But instead of flicking it "on" manually with your finger, your use electricity to turn it "on".

[wilkin250r]

Now that you know what a relay IS, it sounds like Rico is probably right. You either have a bad ground, a bad battery, or just a battery that needs recharging.

The reason has to do with the voltage drop from the starter, the voltage applied to the coil on the relay, ground connections and resistance, blah blah blah. You don't want to hear about it, and niether does anybody else.

[Jeffrey99]

alright thanks a bunch guys....I'll try charging it and cleaning all connections...

Jeffrey