Electric starter problems

If it's always running, the starter relay may be stuck in its energized state or it's getting 12 volts from somewhere it shouldn't or your start switch is sticking/wires get shorted together. When you turned the key on and the starter spun, were you in neutral? Was the clutch pulled in? Will it spin when you aren't in neutral? How about if you don't pull the clutch in?

***Sorry, I think I read your post wrong. I was thinking the starter never stopped spinning. If it's just making a funny noise or not spinning fast enough to engage its teeth on the starter clutch, then go with the below post's recommendation about the battery.



The starter relay could be sticking or the starter button could be sticking. The starter button on the handlebar could just have a piece of debris inside of it that makes it stick when pushed and never allowing the starter to stop, until bumped or knocked loose. Or the starter relay itself is sticking and preventing the starter from stopping.



If it were the starter button stuck, then putting the bike in 1st gear and no hands on the clutch should stop the starter (the neutral and clutch safety switches would not allow voltage through the "starting ckt cutoff relay"...if you still have these safety switches intact). Or turning the key to OFF would stop it. Or if the R/W wire going to the starter button is grounding out then it'd fire off the starter.



If it were the starter relay sticking, turning the key to OFF would do nothing to stop the starter.

Yep, give the manual a shot so you don't throw too many parts at it....although, you could have peace of mind those other parts are now fixed for quite some time



I don't believe it's the relay. If the starter spins when you press the starter button, the relay is good. But, you never know!



You could try taking out the starter and make sure the gear on the end of it moves along the starter shaft, if it's stuck in place it won't engage the starter idler gear (#1 below) which then won't engage the starter clutch. Could just be gummed up. Pop the starter out and give that gear and the shaft it rides on a good cleaning with a tooth brush and WD40.



When you put the starter clutch in, was the idler (part #1 below) in there?? You may not have a connection between the starter gear and the starter clutch.

You have two issues going on here:



1) There is something going on with your wiring. The starter should not spin with the key in the ON position and the stop switch on RUN. With the key ON and stop switch on RUN, the starter will spin only if you press the starter button. That's how it should be.



Either your starter push button wires are shorted together, the starter button is frozen, or the wire leaving the starter relay is grounding out somewhere on the frame/engine/etc (talking about the R/W wire, red wire with white stripe).



Try this for us....turn the gas on, turn the key to ON but leave the stop switch to OFF. What happens? No starter spin? Keeping the key to ON turn the stop switch to ON, does it start spinning? Then turn the stop switch to OFF again, stop spinning? Let us know. If it does that, your starter switch is stuck. If it spins no matter what, then...



The R/W (red with white stripe leaving the starter relay) wire is grounding out somewhere. To check this, use a multimeter with the diode/continuity setting and put one probe on the R/W wire right at the starter relay and the other probe on the negative terminal on the battery. Do you have continuity? If so, that wire is shorting out between the starter relay and the starter button.







2) When the starter is spinning it's not spinning over the engine. You charged the battery, but it could still be bad. Otherwise, your starter gear is not protruding out when the starter spins and therefore the gear isn't engaging the idler gear and you get a no-start situation even though the starter is spinning.

Your relay should look something like this. Don't measure at the copper terminals with the thread on them, those are the large red wires. We need to check the red/white wire that goes into the plug that fits in the socket on the relay (where those 4 little terminals are on the back of the relay)...

The R/W wire circled in yellow is the wire we want to measure continuity to the ground terminal on your battery. When the key is ON and stop switch is on RUN and you press the start button this wire gets grounded and allows the starter to spin. When you release the starter button this wire is no longer grounded therefore no longer allowing the starter to spin. Since you have a constant-spin issue happening, I believe this wire is grounding somewhere it shouldn't.



The bold wires below are the heavy gauge wire running from the battery to the starter relay and from the relay to the starter. They connect to the copper threaded terminals on the starter relay. These, again, are not what we want when measuring continuity.