Starting Issues

[boxertwinjeff]

After cleaning the contacts inside the Starter Button assembly which were
filthy, the bike started, for a while anyway, using the starter button. The wiring looks pretty suspect
in there with a couple of the wires having only half the copper strands making contact.
Sometimes the engine will start imediately, then 5 minutes later all I get will be that
fast clicking sound? If the problem WAS the Starter Motor would'nt it have died completely
by now as this has been an ongoing issue for some 3 years? all that time I've mostly just relied on
kickstarting it, I'd like to sort it for once & for good. Any ideas?

[Garnet]

The starter relay can cause problems, but that usually is more common in cold weather.

Here is a multi-coloured solution: http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/slash5cricket.htm

[ME 109]

Perhaps find where the starter switch connects inside the headlight and bridge the terminals there, basically removing the switch from the equation.
It will help to isolate the problem.

Clicking starter solenoid has always been a low battery/poor connection thingy afaik.

Edit, the fact that the starter solenoid is clicking, suggests that the starter switch is doing its job.

Relays.........wire connections........poor starter wire connection at diode board, etc

[Duane Ausherman]

You can test it by bypassing the starter switch. I think that info is on my website. Did you try there?

The clicking is usually due to low current flow. The relay connects up the starter and that drops the voltage so much that the solenoid can't hold in, so it pops back out. Then it reconnects again and goes through another cycle. What you hear is the clicking, one in and one out for each cycle.

The low flow can be due to any number of things. A bad internal connection of the wire to lug at the battery. The lug at the battery. This can happen at each junction of wire and connector all along the path. Knowledge and a voltmeter will find it.

Or, accept that you could easily have several poor connections and they total one really bad one. Use the shotgun approach, remove and clean them all. Be sure to use NO-OX on them.

[Deleted User 72]

Or your battery could be toast.

[Jean]

Check the lugs on the battery too. On mine, the negative lug broke just at the battery screw and I hunted forever before I found THAT. Everything else is really clean tho. Then only last year at a rally, a fellow had a "no-start" issue with HIS /5 and was going to call a truck. I mentioned the broken lug...it was what was wrong with his too!. Fixed it enough to go home and saved a wad of money!!
So, have a look. Also might be just corrosion there.
There's another weird thing that can happen. Corrosion starts down inside the battery cable and eats the wire away where you cannot see it. The lights work, and the solenoid pulls-in, but there is not enough wire left to carry the starter current and nothing happens. Wiggle the fat wires to see if there is a flimsy place, especially the negative cable.