Neutral light from starter diagnosis - 2 problems

You can monkey with the one you got.
Some guys are able to resurrect them.

Guys like me put-on one that works.
New; used.
It don't matter.

Then, you take the old one in your left hand.
Toss it out in front of you at about eye-level.
Smack it with a Baseball Bat.
They don't go far but it feels good.

 

Best advice yet, Rick. Solenoid, bat, beer...I think I hear a good old Nova Scotia kitchen party about to start.

 

"It's a line-drive to deep center field..."

 

In praise of Len and the crew at XJ Forever:

Never have I had a repair as simple and as simply satisfying as this one. Not only did the solenoid arrive at my door this morning at 11am, less than 7 calendar days from ship date, but the fit was perfect and the operation flawless. How I managed to live with the increasing frustration of a deteriorating solenoid is beyond me. Len's aftermarket part performs better than expected and it seems the starter doesn't even turn one revolution and the bike starts immediately.

Now I can dial back my envious looks at owners of new bikes that start right up because my old Maxim starts at least as quickly if not better.

What makes this all so surprising is that it all took less than 5 business days to ship from Atlanta to Nova Scotia - no red tape, no customs, no hassle at all.

Let that be a lesson to this old fart - don't live with a problem. Fix it and stop making the excuse that your bike is old and cranky just like you! It can be fixed. Total time from start of seat removal to riding down the street - 17 minutes. Shazam!

Thanks XJ Bikes.
Thanks XJ Forever.
Thanks Len, great service, as promised!

 

Hello wisers,

I am experiencing same problem, NO NEUTRAL light and when start button pressed lights up OIL light. from reading this thread am guessing the oil switch is malfunctioning hence triggering the starter relay Not making the bike to start. Its 1985 MAXIM X 750. If someone could point me where this oil switch is..would be the way to go i gues..thankx

 

littlegiant, when you press the starter button, the oil light is supposed to come on as there is no oil pressure yet. Your neutral light not coming on is likely due to one of two issues - diode block (unlikely) or neutral safety switch malfunction (likely). New switch should solve your issue immediately.

 

Thanks psteele, strange..my 1986 XJ700S aircooled maxim never has oil light on when starting..so i thought that not normal for my Maxim X 1985 to do that.

 

If the battery and the starter were connected the solenoid when you did that, the starter should have spun. Has somebody load tested the battery? I don't mean just checking it with a volt meter, load testing it requires another tester. anyplace that sells batteries will have one and they can be bought for around thirty bucks. Batteries can be intermittent, but its not real common. Testing a battery with just a voltmeter is near useless.

Intermittent problems can be VERY frustrating and having multiple problems makes it worse. I'm going through similar issues with mine now.

I'd ignore the clutch switch light for now and concentrate on getting the starter turning first.

What I'm going to relate comes from my knowledge of the 650 and from the drawing that was posted earlier. There are differences, but they're very similar.

For the starter to engage, the ignition switch and engine kill switch have to be on and the starter button has to be good. We know that all of those things are happening, because the oil light comes on when you push the button and it wouldn't if any of those things was bad.

Next the ignition relay has to close and that can happen a couple of ways. If the engine is in neutral it will get a ground through the switch. Since we seem to have a problem with that circuit lets just ignore it and use the other method which is to both pull the clutch in and have the side stand switch up. The drawing that was posted doesn't show a side stand switch, but I'm assuming its there. This relay is seriously overworked. Every time you pull the clutch lever with the side stand up it operates. That means every time you shift it cycles. Not great engineering

When the ignition relay closes, it sends power to the "pigtail" on your solenoid. You should be able to measure voltage on the R/W wire with the starter button pushed. That's going to be hard to do while holding the bike up with the clutch in, so a helper might be in order. If there's no voltage there the relay didn't close.

The fact that it will bump start gets it down to one of three things. The battery, the solenoid and the ignition relay. You've already replaced the solenoid. Edit: It could also be a starter or a wiring problem. You indicated that every time you jump the big terminals on the solenoid that the starter spins so that seems to be eliminated leaving the battery, relay and wiring. If the starter turns the engine strongly sometimes, the battery is possible but unlikely.

The neutral light issue can be handled separately.

Good luck,
Mike

EDIT: added wire color