I just got done changing the rear belt on my 85 FXWG. When I reconnected the battery the starter (Hitachi type) immediately started spinning. The solenoid does not engage, so it doesn't crank the motor, it just spins the starter motor.

Everything worked fine before it came apart. The starter is the factory original. One of the things that seems not right is that the battery terminal on the starter motor is grounded. Even with the starter out of the bike the terminal is shorted to ground (the starter case). Is this right?

Second, should the solenoid terminals be grounded?

Any ideas would be helpful.

 

The first time I had my inner primary off (to fix tranny leaks), I put the battery cables back on wrong & had the same problem. The pos. cable goes from the battery, to the starter relay under the tranny, to the solenoid, and then to the starter. I think they route like that so the solenoid engages before the starter starts to spin. Hope this helps...

 

The bottom terminal is wired straight to starter.

The other terminals can be wired a few ways. On mine the top goes to positive battery terminal and the regulator and main breaker. Middle terminal goes to relay from starter button.

The factory did it a different way that was pretty lame. They had a big-*** relay under bike that ran to the top terminal and a little jumper running to the middle terminal. I removed about three foot of battery cable when I replaced the factory relay with a tiny little bosch relay. No wonder they changed to a different system by 87. I can go into more detail if necessary.

I put an ohm-meter on the bottom terminal going to the starter and it measured 1 ohm to ground which looks like a short but isn't.

Let me know if you need a better copy of the schematic.

 

Thanks Rob! That helps me out too, and I'm not even the one havin' the problem!

 

thanks guys!!

I found the problem to be that I put the solenoid/bendix lever assembly together wrong. When I put the spring/lever/collar/keeper pin, in correctly, the problem was solved. the way I had it, had the rod in the solenoid pushed in all the time. Apparently that closes the circuit that puts power to the starter motor.

bike is awesome once again. I put on a new rear belt, changed back to a spoked rear wheel (I had a chromed solid FXSTC wheel on it), replaced some parts in the shifter linkage, and fixed the leaky primary seal.