About 5 weeks ago I went for a mid-winter ride & my bike croaked on me. I had to call a flatbed to get it home. I'm finally getting into finding the issue & think its the starter relay. I hooked up the jumper wires & multimeter. My Clymer's manual says the multimeter should read 0 if there is continuity. Does that mean exactly (& only) zero? I'm getting 0.1. Please tell me my problem is just my starter relay.

FYI - Bike just quit while under power, once I got off of it, the rear lamp was flashing like a hazard light until the battery was drained and every time the rear lamp "clicked" on there was a sound similar to the turn signal noise in your car.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you don't have continuity, meters will tell you something like 'open circuit'.
I'll just jump to the conclusion you have the meter in 'ohms mode' for checking continuity.
Any reading at all would indicate otherwise, but it can get tricky. You have to know the circuit you're checking and how you can end up with continuity when the section of the circuit you're testing has none. Often the 'continuity' can show by coming back around on the circuit if you haven't removed certain connection points, where in fact, you don't, if that makes any sense.
For example, relays often get burnt and show continuity, when in fact they are fuc***. You really have to know what you're looking for. I hope the manual has decent wiring diagrams.
The easiest way to test the meter is to just touch the probes together. You'll get a reading of continuity when together, and '0', or 'open' when you separate them.
Unfortunately it's made much easier when you're shown first-hand.

CN

CN

 

Just looked at your original post.
My thinking is that if your battery was anywhere 'close to flat' I'd might expect to see your bike quit mid ride. I'm assuming it failed to restart, (no surprise either) which makes me think it might not have anything to do with the starter and/or relay. Is there something you know that we don't?
Newer bikes with electronic ignitions are fussy about power they get. They want to see a voltage inside a set range to be happy. The days of bikes staying running once started are over.
What kind of shape, and how much charge did your battery have before the ride? It may very well have started up your bike in the beginning, but it's not uncommon to see it not be able to keep it running once underway.
I'd want to know a few more things before I started thinking it is due to anything downstream of the battery. What led you to checking the starting circuit?

CN

 

Prior to the ride, I had the battery on a tender since my last ride in December. I did check it with a volt meter prior to starting her up & I had a 12+ volts. While I was inspecting the bike on the side of the road, I could hear a clicking, very similar to a relay pulling in. It was happening at about the same pace as your turn signal light flashed in your car.

I figured the meter reading should be exactly 0 to prove continuity, and that the 0.1 I am getting means the relay is toast.

I can't thank you enough for the help. I have tons of experience with auto mechanics & I'm just trying to get that knowledge rolled over into my bike's systems. I know the systems are similar, I just don't know the "bugs" of a bike yet.

 

Do you know the age of your battery? I believe you should have 12.6 volts from your battery prior to starting since it's been on a tender that long. I would start with the battery.

 

You can have 12.6 volts and still have a bad battery. If the battery is more than a couple years old you should have it load tested before you do anything else. If it is just a bad battery you'd be wasting time and money looking at other potential problems.

 

Regardless of the battery, if I get anything other than a zero for the ohm continuity test on the starter relay (performed as described in the Clymer's manual), that means the relay is toast, correct? The reading I am getting is 0.1.

 

What reading do you get when you put the 2 leads form the meter together? That would be the same thing as continuity. My meter goes to O.L. but I also have a continuity setting on it that beeps when it's continuous.

 

Some times it hurts to be so dumb. Thank you all for the help!! My starter relay is fried. Going to order a new relay right now.

 

i have a 2002 electriglide classic. it starts up fine then after it warms up all the electrical shuts down for about 5 seconds then resets and comes back on. then i can restart it and am able to ride for about 10 ft and repeats itself all over