so today i swapped out the icm from a working bike. it would not turn over. also swapped the clutch switch diode, (not sure if i was reading mine correctly) of which also did not make the bike turn over. i tried applying power to the y/r and g/r wires on the starter solenoid, and it did not make the solenoid pop. if i apply power to the starter side of the solenoid, it turns, but will not start..shouldnt it be able to start by doing this?

really starting to get discouraged..lol

I took apart the starter switch and cleaned it. on the top of the run switch (black wire), im only getting about 9v. which is then being properly passed through the starter switch. (when "run" is selected and start is pressed) but the headlight side of the starter switch is getting 12v..is this normal?

 

Alrighty then... this should be a straight forward process of elimination. The good thing is that you've swapped out the ICM which is hard to diagnose. Having done that, we're down to wiring and switches, and that is pretty straight forward.

Everything needs a complete circuit to work. So not only does it need power supplied to it, but it also needs the path back to the Negative side of the battery which is via the frame. So we want to make sure we have good ground connections to the frame as well as continuity through the various wires to the different components.

As a point of reference, when checking for power or making a voltage check (same thing) we're looking for the presence of 12v (battery voltage) at some point along the path where it needs to go. We'll always want to have the Black lead or negative lead attached either to the negative terminal of the battery, or to an unpainted part of the frame. The Red lead is for making the checks. We want the meter to be on a voltage scale just higher than what the expected voltage that we're gonig to be checking. In this case we're looking at 12v so setting of 20v or whatever setting you have that is similar.

First we want to know is the ICM getting power ? If you unplug the ICM connector, find the Black wire and see if you have 12v going to it. The Ignition Switch must be in the ON position. Since you're not having problems with your headlight, I'd suggest temporarily unpluging the headlight connector at the bulb because it draws a lot of power and could run your battery down while making these checks. Just remember to plug it back in before you ride it home.

OK, now if you have 12v going to the ICM, we want to make sure it has a good ground. This would be a continuity check. This type of check lets us see if electricity can pass from one place to another. We use the OHMS scale for this and again, we'll use a low setting like 200 Ohm or 2000 Ohm (sometimes written as 2K Ohm). This type of check we'll be checking from one place to another. It doesn't matter which lead you use at each end of the check. So, while you've got the ICM unplugged, check for continuity from Frame ground to the Green wire on the ICM. You should read very low resistance like at most 1 or 2 Ohms.

Depending on what you get on these checks will determine where to go from here.

 

I have a snap on multi-meter and is has auto ranging, do you recommend keep it on auto or set the range scale?

 

i dont know how much of a difference it makes, but i also forgot to mention that i have f4i gauges that i installed about a year ago..everything is showing as it should on those though. (neutral lights in neutral and the side stand is wired to the FI light, and shows as it should..)

 

So I just left it on auto..but 12v on the batt..11.5v at the icm. ( unplugged black.) Is a 1v voltage drop across switches average? The ground on the other hand is quite a sore thumb. It has continuity, but it has 27 ohms of resistance. . I pulled the r/r plug and it also is coming in at 27 ohms..

 

Auto-ranging is fine if you're able to determine what scale the value it's displaying is on. It's up to you.

27 Ohms is way too high. You're going to need to remove the large ground connection and clean it good. It should be coming from the negative battery terminal and screwed into the frame somewhere. Just follow the big black cable. Also, there are other ground wires that are screwed into the frame. Remove them and clean as well. There is one on the R/R backing plate if I recall.

A 1v drop across a switch is high. Probably going to have to clean the contacts on that switch as well as others.

 

OK. So this was one of the bigger pain in the butts that Iv'e had to deal with, but my bike is running again...
With the help of Idodirt, we were able to find an open wire. This wire didn't really stand out much earlier in the troubleshooting, but i guess i was just trying to quickly go through the harness looking for something to be a clear yes or no..

Anyways. According to the wiring schematic, the black wire coming to the stop/run switch (possibly a black/yellow like on mine), was showing signs of resistance, but i looked past it. The 9v was not enough to power/engage the solenoid. Either it was the way the harness was sitting to even create continuity, or this resistance caused the wire to open completely. Because once Idodirt started helping me out. This wire no longer had continuity whatsoever. (which made me feel like, well a tool..lol)

I had acquired another run/stop/start harness since the bike has gone down, which at this point i swapped out. Power on, and run, and start...yielded a grrrrrrr from the starter solenoid. That was all I needed to hear being as the battery had drained down. Once i got everything back together, I was able to push the bike out to be jump started..

Hopefully no one else has to go through the pain of this type of issue, because it was miserable..The wire and whole problem at hand was checked very early on in the troubleshooting. and multiple times, at that. If there is one thing I have learned through this, and recommend to anyone checking continuity, is either leave off, turn off, or do NOT rely solely on hearing a beep when connecting two wires together..READ THE RESISTANCE. You will see that normal, good wires will either yield a value of 0 to 0.4 ohms. which is nothing. I'm sure had I been paying attention, it would have stood out that the wire was open, or on it's way to being open..

Thanks for all the help and hopefully this thread can save someone some sweat and time eventually..

 

Good to hear it is fixed!

 

Well glad to hear it's running again. That's music to all our ears. Good job man.