Interesting starter relay experience on our Road King this week that I thought might be of help to others, being that there seems to be some issues with them in general.

Our problem was not the "dreaded click of death" where you hear a lclick but no crankover.
What we got was the "dreaded NO click of death". Every now and again when you pressed the starter button there would be no click, no nuthin. Not even the tiny little relay click like you hear when putting the brake lights on without the engine running.

Concluded the starter relay (the small one under the sidecover, not the solenoid itself) must not be getting any juice sometimes, indicating bad connection, loose wire etc as discussed in the relay sticky at the top of the Evo section here.
So the bad connection could have been anyplace from the handlebar switch to the ground terminal to the 2500 yards of wiring in between.

But when my son pulled the sidecover off the bike (95 Road King) it was pretty obvious where the bad connection most likely was. The start relay on this model is right next to the rear drive belt, right at the cutout in the rear fender for the belt.
As a result the start relay was covered in dirt and crud and road grime of the ages. Pulled the connector off the relay and the connector spades and terminals were just yechh! Corroded all to hell and lucky to be passing any current at all.

Cleaned up the connectors and spades with a bit of WD40 and fine wet rub paper and got them all nice and shiny looking, stuffed a good gob of die-electric silicone grease down each connector hole and put it back together.
Result, no more "dreaded NO click of death" and a sure start every time, so far.

So to hopefully delay this corrosion happening again, we wrapped the relay, connector and wires in a good couple layers of that rubber stretch tape that fuses together after application, to keep dust and road grime and water out of the working parts in future. I might even put in some kind of plastic box or at least shield to keep the contents of the fender off the electrics at some point in the future.

Seems like a pretty poor location for a delicate piece of electrical equipment and I'm sure responsible for at least some of the relay problems that crop up.

The identical brake light relay in front of the start relay was fine -- the rearward starter relay acted as a nice mudguard for it!

Also while in there we popped the start relay open and cleaned the burned up deposits off the contact points with some wet rub paper (no room for proper points file). This was not tyhe cause of our problem becuase we were getting no click at all, but could become a problem in time maybe, which would result in the main solenoid not getting its operating current.

Did notice too that the brake light relay is the same part number so if a guy were stuck out someplace with a bung starter relay, he could replace it with the brake light relay next to it and get going. Hell of a lot easier than push starting a dresser.

 

Good post, I think I'll check my connections in my 95 RK too and do some maintenance to prevent the dreaded push start.

 

the button cant be ruled out as the reason as well -- we have been installing a finger operated button on the end of the soleniod - dressers need to be engine cool to use but softails / sportys when all fails press the buttton, if its not the battery it cranks over and starts - johnjzjz

 

These work great inside and outside spade connectors and plugs








Home \ Tool Catalog \ General Service \ Cleaners \ Item: TC8040

• TC8040DIAMOND GRIP TERMINAL CLEANERS

1. List Price: $35.85

 

I can but a lot of sandpaper or emory cloth for $35.85..............

 

A standard Bosh type relay can be found at any auto parts store for less than 10 bucks. You could even replace it with a micro relay, which is about one third the size.

Make sure the relay has a diode inside it, this will protect the switch, just look at the relay, the schematic on the case will show the diode if it has one. When using a relay with a diode, always use terminal 85 as ground.

 

Yes you can...........if you work on electrical for a living it's worth it.....sandpaper can't get inside a female plug.....these can

 

I just fold a piece of wet rub paper into a narrow strip and insert it down inside the female connector. Works ok but is fiddly. If I was doing it all the time those tools would be the duck's nuts.

I had a few standard relays around, but nothing wrong with the relay in this case. And when I opened up an auto store relay, the insides of it were nowhere near as heavy duty looking as the stock HD item's insides so I stuck with the original and clean connections. Still working 100 per cent so far.