Topic: bike will not shut off help..

[cijiwij]

I put new grips on my 76 750 and had the tank off then tried to start it to use up the gas in the bowls and it got stuck in a starting sequence and would not shut down with the key or with the kill switch..the battery died out and now im not sure what actually happened.

can someone save me?

[Bodi]

If the starter motor kept turning with the key off, the solenoid switch is stuck closed. I can't suggest any particular possibility if the engine actually started and would not shut off.

[cijiwij]

Is this a replaceble part??

and I wonder why it just went now??

[heffay]

at least it runs... 

[cijiwij]

it was fine until I decided to clean my tank..it seems like whenever I do one thing another pops up and im dead on land again.

[cijiwij]

O/K I pulled the solenoid from my 97 550k parts bike and noticed that on my 750 the green wire is tied back and the yellow/red is split tp two places.. i would like to just atatch them as they should be.

Wondering is there a polarity to the top two solenoid posts???

[Alan F.]

there shouldn't be any polarity, the small wires coming out are just to juice-up the electromagnet, ant the two big lugs on top are the switched contacts. I've read here many times that the solenoid can be disassembled for cleaning quite easily, and reassembled, although I have never done it....maybe you just need to clean some accumulated dirt out of your original one and clean up the contacts while you're in there, slap in a thin coating of dielectric grease and reassemble.  That should cure it, Thanks for bringing it up... I'll put it on my to-do-list for the winter.

[Einyodeler]

I`ve had the starter buttons fry out on me where they stayed on but could turn it off at the ignition.Maybe this will help ,here are the color wiring diagrams for both models.

[cijiwij]

How can I tell if it is the starter button.

I think that I disconected all the wires to it in the headlight bucket yet still have the problem,,the kill switch would not work as well..

[Gordon]

How can I tell if it is the starter button.

If it were the starter button, it would have turned off when you shut off the ignition. 

[frostypuck]

You can start these bikes without the starter button by placeing a bit of metal across the big terminals on the starter solenoid. But, the key must be on for this to work. So I would think that a  stuck solenoid or a stuck button would stop turning the starter once the key is switched off.
Now, the cable from the battery to the solenoid could be contacting the starter cable somewhere.
Be careful, something's bound to heat up and burn. Also, if you've got the "newer" style key switch, up between the guages, look around there for the culprit, keyswitch-wise anyway. Those sometimes work, don't work, stay on, stay off, etc....So it's possible the bike didn't actually turn off when you switched the key off.
Also, does the red knob off-on-off switch kill the bike?
Chris in Boston

[Gordon]

You can start these bikes without the starter button by placeing a bit of metal across the big terminals on the starter solenoid. But, the key must be on for this to work. So I would think that a  stuck solenoid or a stuck button would stop turning the starter once the key is switched off.

You're half right on this.  Bridging the terminals on the solenoid will cause the starter to turn regardless of whether the ignition is on or off.  The power to the solenoid comes directly from the battery and doesn't run through the ignition switch. 

[74cb750]

a very large hammer, preferably a SLEDGE works fine in place of the old fashioned kill swithes. Just ask andynzl

But I would replace the selonioind instead

[cijiwij]

Here's a kicker..the person that owned this bike before me had the black wire on the seleniod connected to the yellow/red connecter and the yellow/red wire from the solenoid connectet to the white on the regulator.

Now there is a green/red conecter/wire with nothing conected to it.

The solenid that I took off my 550k has a yellow/red and a green/red.

Should I connect them the way it should be???

Also can anyone tell me why the misswiring is here..is it to jump or bypass something??

[Bodi]

Well, that 750 wiring diagram postd is certainly a piece of crap. The top switch labelled "horn" is, of course, the starter switch. The horn is at the bottom with the other left hand switches... also labelled "horn". The wiring at the actual solenoid is shown wrong. The red/yellow wire should connect only to the end of the curly wire representing the solenoid magnet coil. The starter motor wire shown red/yellow should be just plain red - or maybe black which is the actual colour of the large wire to the starter.
Whatever.
The starter safety module inhibits the starter motor if the transmission is in gear. Some bikes include the side stand being down, the 750 doesn't. If you pull in the clutch you can use the starter at any time - the black/red wire gets grounded either from the SSM when the transmission is in neutral or through the clutch lever switch; the starter button completes the solenoid circuit to ground.
Why the colours etc on your solenoids are all weird I can't say. It looks like the SSM has been bypassed. There should be NO solenoid wires connected to the white regulator terminal. You could either try to reconnect the wiring according to the diagram (hint - get a Honda shop or owners manual wiring diagram to work from) or properly bypass the SSM. One solenoid wire goes to ignition power, that can be done at the BAT terminal on the rectifier, black wire. The other solenoid wire goes to the red/yellow wire from the starter switch. The black/red wire to the starter switch has to connect to ground, either a green wire terminal in the headlight shell or somewhere on the frame or engine. You can remove the SSM and forget it. It's probably burnt out anyway, why else would someone wire around it?

[Bill Vaughan]

Just a educated guess, but I'd check the wiring to the starter switch and the switch itself.  Assuming that you opened the switch housings to change out your grips, it's possible that you pintched or pulled off a wire or that you disturbed the switch assembly components. Same thing happened to one of my Hondas once.  I found a wire to the switch was pinched, void of it's insulation and grounding against the handlebar causing the starter to engage. 

The best way to check the switch for good or fault is to perform a continuity test with a meter.

[Gordon]

Just a educated guess, but I'd check the wiring to the starter switch and the switch itself.

It's not the switch.  If it were, the starter would shut off when the key was turned off, but it doesn't.  Therefore, it's the solenoid.  Why does this sound familiar? 

[Mark M]

The Solinoid to starter connection is always live.
 It's the electromagnet inside that is on the ignition wireing.
Either accumulated crap or electical arking has caused it to stick passing current to the starter motor continously. They are essentialy the same on all bikes so any breakers yard could help you with a replacement.

[cijiwij]

Here is where I am at,, i conected the newish solenoid  with like color wires( not the way that it was rigged)

In the headlight bucket I have black/white to same

yellow/red to same

black to black

I can kick start it and the kill switch works but the starter button does not..

I can live with this but I dont want an episode of a start sequence while i am driving..

[Bodi]

The blqack/white wire is power to the coils from the kill switch, it shouldn't affect the starter.
The solenoid should have 2 small wires; depending on the brand and bike it came from the colours will vary. These go to the bike harness wires - one to a black (ignition power, should be battery voltage with ignition ON) and the other to the red/yellow wire. You should measure battery voltage between these with ignition ON and the start button pressed, if you get 12V or so and it doesn't work then try reversing the wires. If neither way works the solenoid is defective.
If you get no battery voltage into the solenoid in that test but there is voltage on the black wire, the starter switch or the SSM is bad.
Assuming that the wiring is correct, does the starter motor work with the clutch lever pulled in? There should be a tiny switch on the lever pivot and a cable (a black/red and a green wire) leading to the harness either in the headlight shell or under the tank. This switch bypasses the SSM and should let you start the bike. It's not unusual for the SSM to fail, if there's a short anywhere in the solenoid circuit the diode in the SSM dies.
You can connect the black/red wire directly to the green wire and be able to start the bike in gear with clutch engaged; this is what the SSM and clutch switch are designed to prevent. If you can manage to remember not to do so then connect it and the starter should work.