Voltage on secondary side of starter solenoid?

Does anyone know what they voltage is supposed to be on the non-starter (secondary?) side of the starter solenoid? My brother's xj650 is not starting, and I measured the voltage as 0.06 volts with the start button pressed. There is no noise from the solenoid. I am thinking it is supposed to be 12 volts, and there is a ground somewhere in the system.

 

I haven't had this apart on my bike yet, but the theory should be the same...

Two large wires, one to starter, one to + battery.
One or two small wires, one small wire = 12v switched (trigger) and the solenoid is grounded to the frame, two wires = one is 12v trigger, one is ground.

The trigger voltage should be full 12 volts.
It sounds like you have a dirty starter switch.
To test use a wire to jump 12v from + battery terminal.
You can take the switch apart and clean it, but you must be careful, the plastic is getting old.
When you are done cleaning the contacts, dab a little dielectric grease in there.
It will keep them from corroding again.

 

It is not the switch because there is the same voltage going into the kill switch and the starter button. Strange, but it is either in the key circuit, or in the loom. Has anyone else had a problem like this? Dirty contacts in the key barrel? (don't know what else to call it)

 

Some voltage means what exactly? If your reading 6 volts, there is a problem. You should be seeing 12 VDC at the switch as well. Nacho's post is a great start, did you read out all the points he mentioned? The keyed switch cylinder has a switch at the very bottom of the stack and rarely gives trouble. I pulled mine for snots and giggles last year and cleaned it up, gave it a bit of dielectric grease to keep it from corroding (I also touched up the cruddy solder by removing it and flowing new solder). I believe you have a bad starter switch myself. Have you jumpered the beast yet? If the solenoid clicks and shows continuity when you jump it, your ok there. If not, whalla, your solenoid is dead. Ohm out the primary windings, they should have less than 1 ohm. If you have no continuity, it is dead and not salvagable. If your coil winding is good, proceed. I have successfully disassembled mine and resurfaced the contacts on these so don't throw the baby out. You would need to desolder the energizing (primary) wires and take the washer and nut stacks off of the secondary (battery cables) terminals. Remove the two screws that lay on opposite sides of the face of the solenoid, gently bend the primary pigtail clamp out of the way and slide the assembly apart. You should see a bar that floats at the bottom of the solenoid on top of a spring that has a bunch of arc pits. Clean it up with a file and see if you can't do the same with the secondary poles. Slap it all back together and solder the pigtail back in place. Your done. Put it all back together (don't overtighten the secondary stud nuts and washers, the plastic will crack!) and you should be good to go. Drop a line outlining what voltages you find where and we'll go from there.

 

I guess what I was really asking was if there was a voltage reducing resistor in the start circuit. You answered my question: no. So I should expect a full 12V throughout the circuit.

What I mean is that when I turn the key, I get 0.06V at the kill switch, and when I put the kill switch in run, I get 0.06V at the start button. When I press the start button, I get 0.06V at the solenoid. Since obviously none of these is at 12V, the problem is upstream of the kill switch. (It is probably not the solenoid since it is highly unlikely that two things could go wrong at the exact same time, and if the solenoid was bad, I would still be getting 12 volts upstream.)

So, my conclusion would be it is either the key barrel, or a disconnect before that, or a ground through insulation, which is unlikely, because it is steady voltage even when the bike is moved around.

This happened when I removed the seat, so I am going to check the disconnects under the seat to see if any of those are loose/corroded.

Thanks for the help!

 

Hope it's something simple and obvious!

 

Robert, you called it. It was a blown fuse!

I have never seen ANY voltage on a circuit with a blown fuse before, so I just didn't consider it. It was a 10 amp fuse, and it didn't blow in the middle of the link in the fuse, but at the bottom of the Z shaped link, where I couldn't see it when it was in the fuse holder. This was a blade type fuse.

Anyways, I was embarrased, but never again will I NOT look at the fuse first even if there is some voltage.

BTW, it started right up after I replaced it...