I'm glad I found this thread! I was going nuts trying to figure it out. On mine, I cleaned and lubed the soldenoid plunger contacts, replaced a perfectly fine battery and then got real superstitious with the battery tender. I'm headed to the garage to add the relay and cut the jumper on my ignition switch so that "ignition" is just that, no lights!

 

Ok, couldn't find the jumper wire, but I did manage to clean up several other previous owner wiring messes(horn, marker lights, etc). Also I checked the voltage at the battery, resting with nothing on, I got 12.7 volts at the battery. Once I turned on the ignition switch and hit the starter button, I got 10.8 volts coming from the starter relay's wire to the solenoid. That's almost a 2 full volt drop from the battery to the starter solenoid's coil side. It's really no wonder there is a widespread click issue!

The way I plan to address this to use a heavy duty 30 amp relay wired in as follows: 12gauge fused wire direct from battery positive at the solenoid to the relay's switched input prong(30), 12gauge wire from relay's switched output prong(87 I think) to the starter solenoid's coil input, factory solenoid's coil input wire to one of the relay's control prongs, the remaining relay's control prong to ground.

What this will do is use the factory's starter relay setup to control the new heavy duty relay I added. The added relay when tripped(by the factory system) will provide 12 volt positive directly from the battery with large, heavy duty wiring to the starter solenoid coil, thereby giving it plenty of voltage to overcome age and increased resistance to close the contacts of the solenoid. This way of wiring it lets you avoid splicing or cutting ANY factory wires. You are basically just adding on the new relay and are still using the factory relay to control it.

 

When I did my dual relay set up, I went with the way Dr Hess posted. I ran #10s from the Battery>Relay> Starter. Put a inline 30 amp fuse. Used 12s for the control. I also rebuilt my solenoid. Used Scotch locks to hit the factory control wires. 12.7 seems a little low for a new battery that's on a Battery tender.

 

It actually hasn't been on the tender for a couple days now. Now that I know what is causing the problem, I no longer am being superstitous about the tender! LOL!

 

That should work, D1gger. I considered wiring my relay up like you are doing. It's an acceptable alternative, I think.

BB4xl, I really don't like those crimp on things. I call them "Harley Rider Electrics." You know, 4 of those spliced together under the fender going back to the tail light. I would suggest you carefully split the insulation at the wire where you crimped that in, then wrap your other wire around the original, solder it, and wrap the connection with some black tape. That will hold up for decades. Those crimp in things are luck to last a year or two.

 

I plan to keep the wires as short as possible and tuck the relay up under the nose of the seat above the starter. I just need to wait until I can get to the store to buy a new heavy duty relay, hopefully I can find a sealed one.

 

I know you are right Dr. I first just wanted to make sure that the relay did the trick. I am an Electrician. I used some that are little better than the Blue ones. They are Brown and rated for more amps. I wrapped them with Super 33 all weather electric tape. Still you are right. It is supposed to rain this week so I will wire them in right one night this week. D1geer I always put my Battery tender on when I park my bike for the night. It makes the battery last longer, at least for me. I have might as well use it

http://www.imperialinc.com/items.asp?item=0712600

 

The MoCo used one of those blue ones in the factory wiring harness on Dr.Linda's Sportster. Yes, it is true, if unbelievable. Her turn signals were acting up one day. I got the schematic out and traced it down and figgered it had to be where two lines come together, and when I opened up the headlight bucket, there was one of those blue connectors, corroded of course, and not making contact. We bought the bike new and I've done 99% of the maintenance and no one has been in there but me.

D1gger, I used a relay identical to the start relay. It is cheap, readily available and you can even get a socket for it at the auto parts stores.