'96 no start, no discernible reason - help?

[PASSMORE]

Went to fire up, turned key, lights on, in neutral, and run switch on too. First start attempt and then nothing. No lights, no nothing.

Connected to batt tender/charger and shows green fairly quickly. Turn key on, and nothing. Batt charger light to green again and try again, nothing.

Remove seat and check fuses, all good.

Everything running like a champ 3 weeks ago, no reason to believe anything otherwise. My only thought is replace battery? Am I missing someone really simple?

 

[Tex85]

I would check the ground, if the ground connection is not clean to the frame it could very well cause such behavior of where everything works then absolutely nothing.

If you connect it to your car via jumper cables does it work? If so, again could be ground or even a bad battery.

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

 

[maleko89]

Main fuse?

 

[blaxmax]

30 amp main fuse left of the battery- same happened to me a week ago

 

[PASSMORE]

fuses good. all wires appeared to be solid connect, but upon juggling I am getting power. I think bad ground. Will track it down. Thanks fellas.

 

[blaxmax]

Let us know

 

[davesax36]

Sidestand?
In gear with clutch out?
Ignition fuse?
Clutch switch wires pulled a bit?

I know you said no lights, so some of these don't do that, but can't hurt to check.

 

[jfeagins]

The main connector located directly under the main fuse is a known trouble spot. Pull it apart and inspect for signs of heat, warpage, loose connection, etc. Key switches are another known culprit.

 

[silverado6x6]

Small solenoid wire pulled apart under the seat? The terminal used in the main fuse is a spade type, pull apart and look for burnt spots. Frankly I would ditch the main fuse and upgrade to something better say with screw terminals.

 

[95spfldmax]

the main connector located directly under the main fuse is a known trouble spot. Pull it apart and inspect for signs of heat, warpage, loose connection, etc. key switches are another known culprit.

+1

 

[sdt354]

Sounds like a connection to me. Start right at the battery.

 

[Bill Seward]

My Max was doing that last year. I finally got to take a look (at Thunder, with my son needing it to run to get home..), and found the main 30A fuse connector had partially melted.. Cheap Chinese fuses don't make good contact, and the resulting heat melted things. The fuse never actually blew out - just melted.. I was in the process of ordering a few headlight relays from Eastern Beaver, and added one of his good quality single fuse holders to the order before I sent it out. Got some good BUSS fuses too. Used PosiLocks to connect the wires up, and haven't had a problem since. Seeing we were in Johnstown, I had to go buy a cheap fuse holder to get home, used an extra Chinese fuse - and noticed it had already started to fail in the 250 miles it took to get home. I'm sure you can find a good quality fuse holder locally - take a look at Eastern Beaver's website to see the one I bought. Cost about 4 bucks, and is waterproof, takes a full size blade fuse. Grab a headlight relay kit while you're at it, if you need one, that's another great mod. You can buy just the relays there, and wire up your own, like I did.... I think the whole thing cost about 20 bucks, including a fuse holder for the headlamp circuit. Might as well do the job right, after all....

 

[PASSMORE]

Ended up being a battery. Fluids were low, thus seeing indication of a full charge but then not enough juice to start. Replaced with Odyssey and fired up immediately. However, now my instrument lights and headlight do not illuminate. Clues on this issue fellas? All seems to be plugged back in correctly, fuses good, and all other functions good.

 

[blaxmax]

Turn the key on and put your hand in the opening behind the headlight and give the wires a shake. Maybe grounding out the headlight wire.Mine was coming on when it felt like it last week.

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

Ended up being a battery. Fluids were low, thus seeing indication of a full charge but then not enough juice to start. Replaced with Odyssey and fired up immediately. However, now my instrument lights and headlight do not illuminate. Clues on this issue fellas? All seems to be plugged back in correctly, fuses good, and all other functions good.

The batteries need maintained by keeping the acid/water to the proper level. It's a pain to get to the battery to check the fluid level, which is why a sealed zero maintenance battery is a good choice for replacement. I went through this 2 years ago, my battery was embarrassingly almost empty!

 

[jfeagins]

Is it possible that your starter button is hanging partially in the "IN" position, and not returning to the fully "OUT" position after you start your bike? That would cause the headlight to not come back on after starting the motor.

 

[PASSMORE]

Turn the key on and put your hand in the opening behind the headlight and give the wires a shake. Maybe grounding out the headlight wire.Mine was coming on when it felt like it last week.

Will try. Does this wiring bundle at headlight also control intrument illumination? Neither speedo, nor tach & temp illuminate, though warning lights all seem to function.

 

[PASSMORE]

Is it possible that your starter button is hanging partially in the "IN" position, and not returning to the fully "OUT" position after you start your bike? That would cause the headlight to not come back on after starting the motor.

Headlight, nor instrument illumination come on at all - pre or post start.

 

[Traumahawk]

If the button is sticking....neither the headlight....nor instrument illumination will come on. Ive been there, and this forum pointed. A quick fix is just to manually pull the button out. The real fix is to just take the switch apart, and grease everything with dialectic grease.

 

[jfeagins]

Headlight, nor instrument illumination come on at all - pre or post start.

As is the case when a starter button is not fully returning to it's OUT position!