hey guys. tore down the bike to paint clean up. everything was running fine when parked. eliminated all the junk wiring and just got the basics. i have power from the main circuit breaker up to my ignition/headlight console on my motor mount. but cant get the starter to turn over. even if connect the little black wire straight to the battery 86 off the starter relay should be the one that will fire the starter correct?




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Do you have 12v at the starter? If not, follow wires back.

Bob
1997 Heritage

 

First make sure your battery is fully charged and that connections are tight.

Second clean and tighten all grounds. Then go back and find the grounds you missed.

Third check what voltage you have at all pins on the starter relay.

 

Touch wire 30 and 87 together, then the starter should jump. If it doesn't, you're missing 12 volts on 30 or the problem is in the direction of wire 87.

 

ok. so this morning i tried connecting 87 straight to the battery and it jumped. so i orderd a new starter relay and fuse just to be safe. maby someone could explain to me how this relay works? 30 is power correct? so the relay is always hot? how dose 86 allow it to trigger the starter?

 

If it all worked as you say before...

I would have checked the ground at the relay. No ground no work.

The relay is a switch. If you opened it up you would see a set of contacts and coiled wire. It's a electromagnetic switch. Power is passed when the contacts close to complete the circuit. That is accomplished by you energizing # 86 wire. Then the power goes thru #30 to #87.

 

Further to the above, it uses a low power circuit to operate the relay, which then passes an awful lot of power direct to the starter. The low amount of power is safe to pass through your starter switch on the handlebar, the high power ain't - by a country mile!

 

While you wait for the relay to show up, make sure you get 12 volts between 85 and 86 when you press the start button. You could wire up a little circuit tester with a 12 volt bulb and make sure it lights when pressed.

Otherwise you will be pissed when it still doesn't work.

By the way, those relays cost about 5 bucks at the auto parts store.

 

so im still trying to figure out this relay issue. i have an after market ignition that sits on my motor mounts and it has a start position on it. cant i just wire 87 straight to it? do i even need the relay? or is the relay just for running a smaller wire up to a button on your handle bar?

 

Read my post at #7, there's a good chap! The starter takes a huge amount of power while turning your starter over, which requires 1.2HP. Your Harley engine is only about 40 times more powerful! No way are you going to operate it without a darned relay! Just look how thick the main battery cables are, they are only like that to operate the starter.