Just a chattering solenoid...
Lately there seems to be quite a few members with posts indicating that they only get a clicking when hitting the start button.
One of the most common causes for this is bad connections at the battery (loose or corroded).
If you experience the tick,tick,tick or chattering of the solenoid when hitting the start button, it's time to remove the battery terminals, wire brush the cable ends and the battery terminals also and reinstall them.
(ALWAYS REMOVE THE NEGATIVE CABLE FIRST AND INSTALL IT LAST TO PREVENT ANY SPARKING SHOULD THE WRENCH CONTACT THE FRAME)
If this doesn't cure the problem and the bike has a few years/miles under the belt, I suspect the battery cables themselves for a second most common cause of the problem from excessive resistance in the cable as they grow old.
There's a quick and easy way to trouble shoot this and this is how you do it if you aren't familiar with using a multi meter to check the resistance in the cables.
If you take a jumper cable and attach one end to the POS on the battery and the other end to the big battery POS terminal on the starter that is under the rubber boot and find that the engine starts fine now, your problem is the POS cable and should be replaced. You can do the same with the NEG cable also. What this does is to add an additional path for the battery power in addition to the stock cable to diagnose if the resistance in the stock cables is the source of the problem. Quite often you will feel a hot terminal when cranking which indicates a resistance problem in that connection and needs attention.
If you anything that remotely resembles this, you have found your starting problem.
When changing battery cables, it's advisable not to cheap out here as some would do to save money but to get the best cables available. It will pay off in the long run and you probably will never have to deal with this situation again.
Lately there seems to be quite a few members with posts indicating that they only get a clicking when hitting the start button.
One of the most common causes for this is bad connections at the battery (loose or corroded).
If you experience the tick,tick,tick or chattering of the solenoid when hitting the start button, it's time to remove the battery terminals, wire brush the cable ends and the battery terminals also and reinstall them.
(ALWAYS REMOVE THE NEGATIVE CABLE FIRST AND INSTALL IT LAST TO PREVENT ANY SPARKING SHOULD THE WRENCH CONTACT THE FRAME)
If this doesn't cure the problem and the bike has a few years/miles under the belt, I suspect the battery cables themselves for a second most common cause of the problem from excessive resistance in the cable as they grow old.
There's a quick and easy way to trouble shoot this and this is how you do it if you aren't familiar with using a multi meter to check the resistance in the cables.
If you take a jumper cable and attach one end to the POS on the battery and the other end to the big battery POS terminal on the starter that is under the rubber boot and find that the engine starts fine now, your problem is the POS cable and should be replaced. You can do the same with the NEG cable also. What this does is to add an additional path for the battery power in addition to the stock cable to diagnose if the resistance in the stock cables is the source of the problem. Quite often you will feel a hot terminal when cranking which indicates a resistance problem in that connection and needs attention.
If you anything that remotely resembles this, you have found your starting problem.
When changing battery cables, it's advisable not to cheap out here as some would do to save money but to get the best cables available. It will pay off in the long run and you probably will never have to deal with this situation again.
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