Will Not Start
 

Hi Guys,

Need your expertise, my '99 Superhawk will not start. Stopped at the ATM on the way home and the bike wouldn't start. All the fuses are good, the battery is good, lights work, but when you hit the starter, nothing. Acts like there is no power. I tried to bump start it, but it wouldn't kick over.

Any ideas on what this could be?

Thank you

Kill switch?

+2 on kill switch, had that happen when prior owner was selling bike to me and he didn't check killswitch on handle lmao got bike home unloaded it and looked it over saw the switch thewn and violla it started right up.

Was the side stand down and the bike in gear??

The kick stand sensors are common to fail. try like posted above stand up with stand light off and bike in neutral. also check battery cable connections. mine like to loosen up on occasion and will do as you describe.

also these bikes are harder to push start or bump than you might think...

Kill switch was in the run position (and I have since dis-assembled, cleaned, reassembled and the same result; nothing). Sidestand was up and the bike was in neutral, true neutral, the bike moved freely.

The main fuse is located separately from all of the other fuses... did you check this one when you went through them?

Edit: NM, if the lights are on, that's not it.

What's the voltage you're reading on the battery?

Not sure what the voltage is, have a friend coming tomorrow with a multimeter, but the headlight is still really bright and the battery is also only 6 months old.

Once you get the multimeter you may know more, but I've seen bikes with full instrument panels and headlights working and the battery reading at 11 volts and starter did absolutely nothing.

One way to see if this is the problem without a multimeter is to jump start the bike... You can jump it from a car, just do NOT turn the car on. If this works, you will still have to diagnose the problem, but at least it gives you a direction to go.

If you have jumper cables and a car, that is. If not that advice does you jack haha

It's not the battery, it reads 12 volts...

Check every switch,kickstand,clutch,neutral,kill and starter.

OK, so it turns out the starter relay is bad. Quick fix I wired in a separate switch until the new relay arrives.

In case anyone else needs to do this someday (the red wires connect to the toggle switch that is mounted to the subframe in the left part of the photo; it's accessible without having to remove the seat):

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6189/...e8e1d1a2_z.jpg

As a side note, toggling the switch simply activates the starter. The key still needs to be in the ON position and the kill switch disabled for the bike to start. Obviously once the bike has started, one needs to manually toggle the switch back so that the starter is turned off.