@ lowe16
"Have to go, Kate Winslet is about to drop her laundry on a ship that's about to sink..."

LOL Thanks for ur help. The contacts in the solenoid were corroded some what. I sanded them down. Put everything together, still getting a click. What I did do is wire in another relay just for the starter as per a suggestion on this forum. That worked totally. I am going to solder the connections on the wires for the new relay and then connect them back to the relay. I will also test the relay like you suggested.If it is bad I'll replace it and put the new relay in. Thanks again. Much Appreciated

 

@journeyman, thanks as well, you were right on the money.

 

Always good to hear how things worked out.
Thanks for the reply

 

Well the annoying problem is back. Getting a lot of clicking when I try to start the bike. Been checking connections again. One thing I am noticing is when I hit the starter button and I get a click,,, while the starter button is still held down, I gently push in the manual plunger on the solenoid, it catches and the bike starts up every time. Question to y'all, is there a why of shimming the plunger so that it is closer to the contacts in the solenoid. Hope that makes sense. Thanks again for any help. I have had a great riding season, weather up the the Great White North is slowly cooling off, but I still have a bit of a season left so would like to resolve this issue.

 

So if I read the above correctly, you already have a solenoid cover with the starter push button attached? If not you could always put one on. They're only about $25

 

yes I do have the cover with the push button attached. It seems like there is to much gap between the contacts and the plunger of the solenoid. Is there a way to shim the plunger so that it is closer to the contacts??

 

I would imagine you could shim it. If its not making contact, extend the plunger or something.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/REBUILD-KIT-...-/271250964596

 

I have a 1998 that I bought about 6 months ago. It had been sitting in a garage for over 10 years before the guy I bought it from decided to sell it. Anyway about 2 weeks after buying the bike I started getting the dreaded click! I knew that he had just put in a new battery so I thought its got to be in the starter. Went and bought a new starter from the Harley dealer (OUCH!), and that didn't fix it so I cleaned up the ground connections and the positive leads, which really didn't look too bad but I thought what couldn't hurt. Still had the click so I went back to my local Harley dealer and the parts guy told me they sell a lot of starter relays, so I bought one put it on went down the road, the first time I stopped CLICK! By this time I'm really starting to get aggregated. I could take the green lead off the solenoid and put a jumper on and run it to the hot lead under the rubber boot on the side of the solenoid which comes right off the battery and it would crank every time (when trying this"please be sure you have the bike in neutral). So I decided to check the voltage at the green wire, while pushing the start button, all I was getting with it unhooked from the solenoid was 11.1v/DC but if I put the volt meter to the hot lead on the top side of the solenoid coming straight off the battery I had 12.7v/DC. So that told me I was loosing 1.6v somewhere through the wiring. I figure the system worked right in 1998 so it has to work right again without having to run extra wires, relays, and starter buttons. So I pulled the connector off the relay, if you ohm out the two small black wires with what looks like with a red stripe on them you should gradually get 0.000 or something real close when you push the start button, if you do that tells you that your start button is fine, if not you may have a bad start button. Next on that plug you should have a larger red wire with a white or yellow stripe (hard to tell they are so old) with the key on I was only getting 11.1v which when the relay pulls in the green wire makes contact to the red/yello so in turn I was getting 11.1v to the starter solenoid. So what that told me was that I was loosing voltage somewhere between the relay connector, battery, ignition switch, or the wide three wire connector under the seat which runs right back to the "unobtanium" ignition switch. The first thing I noticed when I pulled the wide connector apart was that the red wire coming into the switch from the battery had gotten very hot at times. The insulation was all brown and melted on the ignition switch side of the plug (which happens to be the female side). The closer I got to the connector the more hot and corroded looking the wire was. This is due to the male and female connector not making a real good connection causing them to arc inside the connector. So I took and removed the one wire from the connector and stripped back the insulation until I could see a bright copper wire again. I then cleaned up the strands with a small wire brush, coated them with soldering flux and soldered the whole part of exposed wire all the way to the connector. Put a shrink tube over the exposed wire took a pair of needle nose pliers and squeezed the prongs just a little (I did this so the male and female would make a tighter connection and hopefully not arc anymore). Then replaced it back into the connector. Put a little dielectric grease on the female side of the connector there and on the one the plugs into the bottom of the relay. Checked the voltage again at the green wire where it plugs into the solenoid, while pressing the start button and I now had 12.2v/DC, it still wasn't the 12.7 I was getting from the battery but I have to figure it's because with the ignition switch on, all the lights on the bike come on so that could cause a .5v drop. Plugged, the green wire back to the solenoid and Crank! Crank! Crank! Every single time. It's been two weeks now and I have ridden most every day for at least an hour or two and she hasn't missed a lick yet.
Sorry for the long winded explanation, but I just thought everyone should know everything I went through to get to where I was at. I hope this helps!

There is nothing more embarrassing than getting done pumping gas and having everyone watching you jerry rig some jumper wire off the side of your beautiful Harley just to get it back started.

 

@Dawg, thanks for the link.
@John7062, not long winded at all, thanks for taking the time to fully describe your situation. I will go through the wiring again. Appreciated the step by step coverage, I am no electrical whiz at all, so your explanation will help greatly..thanks


"There is nothing more embarrassing than getting done pumping gas and having everyone watching you jerry rig some jumper wire off the side of your beautiful Harley just to get it back started."

So True! been there done that.