Cb360 Reassembly Help

Let's just cover everything again to make sure nothing is getting missed.

The solenoid has four connections. Two studs, each with thick wires attached. One stud goes to the battery positive terminal and the other stud goes to the starter motor. Doesn't matter which goes to which.

The other two connections are small wires that are used to activate the solenoid. Depending on how your controls are set up, there will be one of two situations:
1.) One wire on the solenoid goes to power (black wire in the harness) and the other wire goes to the yellow/red wire that leads to the starter button.
2.) One wire on the solenoid gets grounded (green wire in the harness or bare metal on the frame) and the other wire goes to the yellow/red wire that leads to the starter button.

If the solenoid clicks when you press the starter button, you know you have it wired correctly.

If the starter is not working when the solenoid clicks, you have one of the following scenarios:
1.) Starter is non-functional (I believe we've ruled this out because you can use the starter to turn the engine over if you connect it directly to the battery, but it still might be worth bridging the solenoid studs with a wrench just so we can rule out bad cables, too).
2.) Solenoid is non-functional. Two bad solenoids is unlikely, but possible.
3.) Bad starter button. I had this problem on my CX500. The solenoid would click, but the starter button was on the way out, so I wasn't getting enough current to get a solid switchover from the solenoid. I'd get the click, but a poor connection. We've ruled this one out by jumping the thinner solenoid wires that I had mentioned a few posts ago.
4.) Bad battery. I think we ruled this one out already as well? Jumper cables from a car battery is the way to check this.

So assuming that we've checked everything in step number one, I can't think of anything else it might be besides a bad solenoid.

Are all my assumptions and statements correct so far?
 
OK... and just to be 110% sure: The starter will turn if you bridge the solenoid studs with a wrench?
 
No, the starter will not turn if you bridge the solenoids. That's why I didn't think it was a solenoid issue. Which is why I keep going back to a bad ground. That's my only thought
 
OK. That clears a few things up.

Starter will turn (while installed in the engine) if you connect it directly to battery positive using the cable that's currently attached to the solenoid?
 
With the starter on the engine. I took red jumper cable to the starter post, and black jumper cable to engine. And from there the starter turned.

Another thought.. Is after I painted the frame, and rebuilt the engine I never removed any paint from any of the engine mounts.. So could this be the problem? The engine isn't grounded to the frame?
 
It's a consideration, yes. Try your jumper cable technique again, but do only the positive side from your battery to to the starter motor.
 
Word, will do as soon as I get home.

Just cause I haven’t said it in a while, thank you for sticking with me through this. I appreciate more than I can possibly convey.
That goes to everyone who has provided input, y’all are some cool dudes.
 
My brother was at my house so I called him and had him do that for me cause I was anxious.
The starter turned when he connected the battery to the starter with only the red cable to the starter post and the positive battery terminal...
so does this mean the engine is in fact grounded to the frame properly?
 
Sounds like it to me, yes.

And we've already bridged the studs on the solenoid and didn't get the starter to work.

So sounds like a problem with one of the cables, I think. Either the one from the battery positive terminal to the solenoid or the one from the solenoid to to the starter motor.
 
Word.
Will 10 gauge suffice? Or do I need bigger.
Also, where do you get those gigantic ring terminals that you used on the cables? We have everything imaginable here where I work except ring terminals that big
 
Did I supply the cables on this one? I test them before they leave the shop, but it might be worth another test before we go throwing more parts at this.

Disconnect the cables from the bike and use a multimeter to measure resistance from one end of the cable to the other. We should be a reading of very close to zero Ohms.

We might want to look at the wiring setup as well. I'll post a diagram in a little bit which may shed some light on the issue.
 
OK... so he's how the thick cables for the solenoid, starter motor, and battery should be routed. The studs on the solenoid each get one cable and it doesn't matter which side goes to which, so long as each side gets one.

Does that match up with what you're seeing?
 

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You said "from the positive battery to the solenoid". Should I have a wire going directly to the solenoid from the battery?

The way it was labeled, or so I thought, is you had a wire labeled batt +, with the fuse in line with it, so I have that connected to the battery. And there was another wire, with no label, but its red with a ring terminal, so I assumed that is what went to the solenoid. Does that sound correct?
 
There should be a thick cable (about 8 gauge, diameter of a pencil) going from the battery positive terminal to one stud on the solenoid. On the other stud of the solenoid there should another cable of the same thickness going to the starter motor.
 
Nope don't have that.
Ill take a photo tonight. Are there supposed to be two different wires ( 1 being a large wire from positive battery to solenoid , 1 being wherever the wire with the fuse goes) connected to the positive battery terminal?
 
Solenoid on the left, red wire with ring terminal goes into wire loom.

Red wire with fuse, positive battery terminal then to a bullet connector on the other end of the fuse then goes into wiring loom.

From what you're saying, this is not correct?
 

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Yup. Those are separate circuits. The fused wire connects the battery to the ignition switch and controls power to almost everything on the bike. The starter motor runs on its own (unfused) circuit which is the one I drew out in the picture a couple of posts ago.
 
So that means I need to disconnect the current red wire that is on the solenoid. So where does it connect?
Is 10 gauge wire ok to use for the battery to solenoid or do I need thicker?
 
It's correct, you're just missing the extra cable from the battery positive terminal to the solenoid. There should be an 8 gauge wire that's used. Picture attached.

I don't recall, but did you order the solenoid wire from us along with your harness?
 

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