So we had an interesting issue with the 77 GS400 today.
Left on for a day trip, stopped for lunch, came out of the reastauant and the only thing that happened when she pushed the srater button was black smoke from the relay area behind the side cover... YIKES!
So I removed the cover and found that the feed FROM the relay was melting it's insulation right near the relay terminal when the button was depressed and the starter wasn't spinning. The battery cable on the + pole was also loose so I tightened it hoping that there was a bad voltage transfer to the relay and hoped for the best.
I gave her a quick lesson in kick-starting the GS (what a great thing to have as a backup) and off we went.
We stopped for gas a while later and I told her to try the starter... more black smoke... and this time we were parked beside the pumps... killed the power and RAN the bike away from the pumps.
So... my initial thought was the relay itself but I began to think that if the starter was seizing (it does work sometimes) it may be creating undue resistance and heating up the wire.
So.... what do the sages think... relay or starter?
Left on for a day trip, stopped for lunch, came out of the reastauant and the only thing that happened when she pushed the srater button was black smoke from the relay area behind the side cover... YIKES!
So I removed the cover and found that the feed FROM the relay was melting it's insulation right near the relay terminal when the button was depressed and the starter wasn't spinning. The battery cable on the + pole was also loose so I tightened it hoping that there was a bad voltage transfer to the relay and hoped for the best.
I gave her a quick lesson in kick-starting the GS (what a great thing to have as a backup) and off we went.
We stopped for gas a while later and I told her to try the starter... more black smoke... and this time we were parked beside the pumps... killed the power and RAN the bike away from the pumps.
So... my initial thought was the relay itself but I began to think that if the starter was seizing (it does work sometimes) it may be creating undue resistance and heating up the wire.
So.... what do the sages think... relay or starter?