Boxerworks.com

Old member back
on again. Its been a long time since I put the "Catch's easy clutch" on the board. I just turned 78 years young and still riding the same two old airheads. Open heart surgery in April '11 but still hanging in there.

My 93 R100 RT "Juliana" is giving me starter relay fits. I have ordered the second one in a year and wonder (1) is there a less expensive one I can use? I have also made a emergency starter outfit by hooking a wire from the starter solenoid to an arming switch and a push button so I can start her like an old Ford. (2) I can see no reason that this is a problem as long as I am sure she is in neutral. I would like your comments and appreciate your advice and help............

Dwanne, are you still out there? You must be near as old as me now.............

deyacatchte = means "father" in Cherokee......
Used to be "Catch" on the forum eons ago...........

Rather than looking for something less expensive, you should be looking for the reason that your starter relay is going bad...if that's really what's happening. This is highly unusual. Starter relays should be good for 10-20 years...certainly more than 2 in one year.

Kurt in S.A.

deyacatchte wrote:Old member back
on again. Its been a long time since I put the "Catch's easy clutch" on the board. I just turned 78 years young and still riding the same two old airheads. Open heart surgery in April '11 but still hanging in there.

My 93 R100 RT "Juliana" is giving me starter relay fits. I have ordered the second one in a year and wonder (1) is there a less expensive one I can use? I have also made a emergency starter outfit by hooking a wire from the starter solenoid to an arming switch and a push button so I can start her like an old Ford. (2) I can see no reason that this is a problem as long as I am sure she is in neutral. I would like your comments and appreciate your advice and help............

Dwanne, are you still out there? You must be near as old as me now.............

deyacatchte = means "father" in Cherokee......
Used to be "Catch" on the forum eons ago...........

Not too many years ago the starter relay crapped out on my '77 S bike--in the rain. Of course "bump" starting was effective, especially if there was a downgrade handy. When I got back to my brother in law's house I looked into the problem and determined that the starter relay was indeed bad, and it wasn't a problem in the connector terminals connecting with the terminals on the relay. I didn't have a spare with me but my brother in law had a push button switch. So I wired a lead from the battery positive to the push button switch, then from the other terminal on the push button switch to the black wire that disappears into the top engine cover. It's the black wire (on my /6 and /7 series bikes) that connects to the starter solenoid and engages the starter. And, as you noted, when you push the button the starter motor is going to turn the engine, whether in neutral or any gear or what.

Where I'm headed with this lengthy preamble is to say that I see no harm in using the push button to start the bike as long as you want to with the push button. But I would think you would really want to eventually get the bike back to its stock configuration.

I'm trying to imagine how you could hurt a starter relay, even if you were trying to hurt it. If the relay terminal that connects to the black wire were grounded, I can see how that might burn up the relay (and possibly associated wiring). But that would be pretty dramatic and you would know it, unless the circuit opened up, and then you could push the button all you wanted to and the starter wouldn't try to engage.

I'm wondering if you've simply had some bad luck with the starter relays. Have you tried to bench test them? I don't recall the terminal connections, but that information should be available either in certain shop manuals or more likely on the web. You can also figure it out looking at a wiring diagram for your motorcycle. Once you know what terminal does what you can hear the click (or not) and check if the proper internal connection is being made to the terminals of the starter relay.

I wish I could be more specific, but it's been quite a while since I've fooled with a starter relay. Maybe somebody else here can be of more help.

Oh, one last thing, are the contacts of both the relay and the relay socket bright and clean. A corroded connection can drive you crazy, sometimes working and sometimes not.

Good luck.


Ken

Hello !
On my 82 R65 the relay is in a plastic housing and can be opened. So if yours is of the same make, you could open it and see if the contacts are pitted or the coil shorted or cut open.
If the contacts are badly pitted, this I think is due to contact corrosion somewhere. This makes sparks more likely in the relay and can cause shortened life on this one.
In the R65 the relay is a standard one except for the diode in it; So you may find an exact replacement at a car part store. If they do not contain the diode, you can wire a Radio Shack 1N4001 outside the relay ....
Hope this helps.