Ok, so my KLR has a starting issue. I stopped it and went to turn it back on without putting it in nuetral and the bike power went dead, no lights no nothing. I can jump the bike on a hill and it runs fine, the lights flicker a little. When the bike is jumped it runs fine but when I stop it turn it back on I have all the lights but when I push the start button I hear a shorting noise from some where and all the power dies. If I roll the bike a bit the power come back off and on. Not sure what to do? Any ideas? Any help would be great Thanks Dave
The shorting noise might just be the solenoid engaging. Check your battery cables first. It's likely one or more are loose. Then check battery voltage. Start working though things logically.
Could be the starter, yeah. Might be time to find a local mechanic.. hard to diagnose over the 'net. Do you have a multimeter (ohmmeter) so you can test the various starter connections? If so, someone here might be able to paste in the correct values for them. If not, again, a local guy is probably your best bet. Latin American mechanics are da best.
I sure sounds like a bad connection at the battery to me. This very thing has happened to me several times. I know you said you checked it but I would recommend checking it again. I carry a 10mm wrench handy just for this. Second wild ass guess is the starter solinoid that is located under the plastic cover on the left side near the battery.
when you check everything associated with the starter, don't forget the return electrical path. it's often overlooked
not familar with the klr's all that much, but ive had some starter button issues on previous kawasakis. the switch gets corrosion or water in it and creates a short. it makes the starter think its trying to engage, which will short out all your lights and such. i would take the switch off and peek inside. its a very simple problem that has big symptoms.
It does sound like a loose connection, but I'd check battery two. klr's are know for boiling out the water. If so all you have to do is top back off with distilled.
It sounds like a battery issue -mine acted like that when the battery was dying. A couple of things to check: the stator output wires run near the front of the front sprocket. I once broke my chain and the end whipped through there and damaged those wires. It took forever to find that problem, so check the whole length of the stator output wires for damage. Also, I was able to order a kick-starter kit for mine from Kakasaki, the motor was designed so that you could install this thing, even though they did not come stock with it. I think it was around $200 - good insurance against dead batteries. I'm not sure if Kakasaki did away with that option on later models?
Any auto shop should be able to diagnose the problem if you can't, in Cusco there are several good bike shops, go to Norton's rat bar on the square and ask for a good shop...and have a beer and some food. Have some heavy hitters haul your rig there if you can't start it, figure it or yourself out. Should be plenty of downhill in the Andes to bump start bro, think like a Sud Americano motorcyclist. Take a few deep breaths, you are short on Oxygen. Here's a link to Norton's... http://www.nortonrats.com/ bill
I've got a HD Wide Glide that I have to be careful washing to avoid getting water into the starter button housing. It behaves exactly as you describe, dimming the lights for an instant but usually (but not always) breaking the connection again before the starter actually engages. This doesn't surprise me with a Harley, but the KLR would not be that easy to get the electricals wet. How old is your bike? If it's only a few years old I would think that you could rule out corrosion in the switch as well. I'm betting along with the others that there is a short somewhere to/from the starter. A loose battery terminal connection would be pretty obvious, so unfortunately your problem may require some disassembly to locate. Don't forget to check the fuse box for condensation/corrosion. Any mods or wrecks lately that could have caused damage?
Cruthas's KLR spent time on a small boat for many days, so it got more than its share of "marine air". When my DL spent a week in the same conditions, everything was rusting. I swear, even plastic rusts with that much salt air.
Check the grounds again- jump the starter solenoid with a pair of pliers (worked for me for a couple thousand miles through latin america). good luck and let us know how it goes!
After my salty trip from Panama to Colombia , I ran into the same sort of issues. When you say you "checked and dis-assembled" all the connections, did you clean them with electrical contact cleaner? It is amazing how pervasive the corrosion can be. I spent a week going through my entire electrical system after getting off the boat and still had problems down the line. Ended up traveling with a soldering iron and spent more than a couple nights fixing electrical issues. One common issue was that the wire going into a connector would break at the crimp. You can clean the connector all you want but if the wire is corroded and broken (or almost broken) where it enters the connector that won't do you any good. I'm with the advice given so far. Sounds like a bad connection on the ground path from the starter. Take a look at your wiring diagram and go through it step by step. While a multimeter is useful, you can also use a piece of wire to bypass questionable stretches of the wiring harness and see if it solves the problem, if it does, go through that section in detail. Cuzco has good motorcycle shops and internet connections if you don't have a wiring diagram with you. Most any larger city will have a motorcycle shop that can help you out. Next time you are in a larger city, find a place to buy a soldering iron, solder (flux, if you can find it, good luck ), wire and some connectors. The connectors will allow you to improvise during the day, then you can work out more permanent fixes when you have a place to plug in the soldering iron. Good luck and have fun. I met the coolest people when solving bike issues.
