New member with an electrical/starter question!

[FsuBiker]

Hey everyone,

I just purchased a 2005 Gz250 yesterday and I am pretty excited about using it for commuting to school and around town. I'm a Mechanical Engineering student at FSU and i've been riding Atv's, dirtbikes, and regular bikes since I was little.

Anyways, the starter on the 250 I just picked up doesn't work and I'm not quite sure why. Nothing happens at all when you hit the starter button. When I picked up the bike I was able to bump start it and it ran fine (this was after hooking the battery up to a trickle charger for a few minutes). Now, a day later, I tried to bump start it but I couldn't get it running. I did a little bit of research on this forum and it seems as though faulty contacts in the electrical interlock system could be the problem so today I sprayed down the contacts for the clutch, kill switch, starter, and neutral light indicator (I think, connection right in-front of the front sprocket?) but still no luck. I did check the battery today, however, and the voltage while not running today was down at 7V. Also, even while running yesterday, the neutral light did not light up in neutral.

Will this bike run at all if the battery is weak? Does the neutral light not being on in neutral mean that the contacts are bad there and that could be causing the starter to not work? What kind of trouble shooting procedures do you guys recommend from here?

Let me know if I should move this post over to a different section.

Thanks in advance!
Greg

[alantf]

Firstly, charge the battery up, because it'll not start with a low battery. Don't use a car charger, the current's too high. 2 amps for 9 or 10 hours is fine. A proper bike battery tender is even better. When it's charged, let it sit for half an hour, then see what the voltage is. Did you mean that the charging voltage (when the bike's running) is also 7 volts? If so, you need to test the charging circuit. Anyway, charge the battery, and tell us what's happening. You'll need to go into detail, if we're to help you over the computer. :2tup:

[FsuBiker]

Thanks for the quick response!

Not sure what the voltage was while running since I just tested the voltage today and I could not get it running at all! Even after running the bike yesterday for about 20 minutes, right after I shut off the bike I tried to start it back up with the starter and nothing happened at all; no tick noise or anything. I'll get the battery on a charger though and let everyone know what happens.

[Goose51683]

Dumb question but is te bike in neutral or is the kick stand up.

Not meant to be an Insulting question, just covering the basics first.

[FsuBiker]

None taken. I've tried the starter with the bike in pretty much every combination of kickstand up/down,neutral/gear,clutch in/out and all I wouldn't get anything. The battery might have been pretty weak though when I did all of that, so I'm wondering if that could be why (although I would think even with a weak battery the starter should make a tick noise?.?). I don't have the bike with me, but next time I go over to it I'm going to hook up the bike to a non running car battery and give it a shot again.

[Goose51683]

I just had a weak battery on my bike and when I tried to turn it over I got no clicking no turning, nothing. Charged the battery and the starter kicked over with no problem. So a weak battery can definitely be the cause of not turning over.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Goose51683

So a weak battery can definitely be the cause of not turning over.

Seems like charging the battery cures 90% of the electrical problems on the site. :2tup:

[FsuBiker]

Battery it is! haha. Borrowed a battery from a buddy and it started right up, so now I'm waiting on mine to come in. Worried for nothing! But thanks for the advice everyone