What the F^$%#@* !!!!!!!

Ok here's what I am experiencing.. When I'm sitting at a red light, my bike will just cut out. It also happens when I'm cruising up the street, mainly when I'm accelerating, it will cut out, and I have to turn the killswitch off and back on and it will start firing again. I always thought maybe some wire or connection somewhere was loose and grounding out or whatnot, due to vibration and movement, but it also started happening while sitting at a light. Before I fixed my start button, i had to either hop off the bike and run to bump start it while holding up traffic, or get my trusty screwdriver out of my backpack and jump the leads on the solenoid to turn the starter. sometimes it would start, sometimes it wont start at all. Its very aggrovating, especially when it happens while sitting in traffic, or when i have the need to accelerate hard, it cuts out on me and is kind of embarassing. I tried jiggling the killswitch while riding, jiggling wires going into the headlight housing, etc etc, but i just cant find the smoking gun.. i know this is a long post to read but if anyone took the time to read it and you have any advice for me, that would be great!! Oh, and i unplugged pretty much all of the connecters and reassebled them with dielectric grease, but it didnt do the trick. help please!!!

 

Have you tried removing the safety relay to see if the problem is related to the safety circuit shutting down the TCI?

 

I had the same issue about 2 months after buying my XJ750, turned out for me to be the starter solenoid, it started off with the engine just dying on me randomly like you said, then it got to the point where to even start the bike you had to repeatedly smack the solenoid with a wrench to free it up and get the engine to even start. Looked up XJ750 solenoid on Ebay, bought the cheapest generic one that shipped from the US ($25 free ship) and haven't had any problems in the last 9K miles since I replaced it.

Could also be the Safety relay as SQLguy said, mine had that issue with the previous owner, but he rectified the problem by grounding it out.

 

You have a fault in your ignition circuit (doh !)

You need to find it and fix it. There's two ways to go about it, keep doing what you are doing, or start at the beginning and work your way around the circuit till you identify the problem, rectify it and start riding again till something else on your 29 year old wiring fails (sorry if that sounds depressing but it's the reality).

Here's something to chew on ...

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=32483.html

Don't overlook the possibility that there may be more than one problem so take it a step at a time and you'll be ok. It's always hard to find transient problems that go away just when you want to start looking for them so carry your meter with you when you ride and be prepared to pull over next time she cuts out and have a poke about while on the side of the road.

Another method I've used for transient faults is to jumper out parts of the circuit and see if the problem goes away. You can jumper out your kill switch at the connector and take it for a ride, same with the starter relay.

 

You should also consider getting the TCI unit re soldered, as they can have a problem because of age. While doing it, replace any electrolytic capacitors.

 

There's your troubleshooting step. Temporarily unplug the safety relay and see if it keeps happening.

If not, you'll know it's somewhere in the safety circuit components. I'd start with the sidestand switch.

 

Mine was the Brown Wire connection in the headlight bucket. 3 prong connector coming from the ignition switch needed cleaning.

Stephen

 

yea when i bought the bike, i saw that the previous owner did a pretty good hackjob on the wiring, and all the safety switches are bypassed somehow, because the bike starts with the kickstand down, in gear, with the clutch out LOL i dropped it once or twice because of trying to start it on the kickstand, but forgetting to put it in neutral.. im gonna bust out the wiring diagram and see if i cant figure somethin out, thanks fellas!

 

If the PO did a hackjob on the safety switches make sure those connections are still working. Maybe he just twisted the wires together with no connector or solder and taped them up.

I had this exact same problem on my first Maxim, and it was my kickstand safety switch. I bypassed it till I got a replacement and it worked fine ever since.

+1 on giving all the wiring a once over.

Good Luck

 

+1 on going over the whole wiring. If a po did a hackjob you might have more than 1 problem....

 

Find the problem? Hey a fresh set of eyes wouldn't hurt... I'm from Bath, pa. Maybe I can help...Always willing to help work on a jx650!

 

Is this EVER not true?

 

did we get our bikes from the same guy? put him on tape restriction. get an inline splice kit and some heat shrink gut the tape off the harness and spend a while

 

It sounds like the sidestand safety switch is the main culprit. My 82 Maxim has just over 100k and runs great except I have experienced the problem with engine cutting out randomly.
Two years ago during a ride around Lake Michigan it quit on me near Green Bay. Then again near Chicago. hasn't cut out since until this past Friday on the way home from work. It cut out immediately after going 10 feet. Then cut out after about a mile. Again 10 miles more. All the same symptons. It quits, hitting the start button does nothing or it might start right up. On the side of the road I ended up disconnecting the sidestand safety switch, twisted together all three wires and grounded them. Took off and the dang thing cut out again. But adter a few hits of the start button it ran just fine the remaining 6 miles home. So what the heck?? With that stupid switch rendered useless why did it cut out again? I too tried flipping the manual kill switch on and off a few times but that doesn't seem to do anything.

 

I cut to the chase and eliminated ALL "safety" switches at the source then eliminated the wiring from there outward. just pull the clutch in before you hit the button and pull the stand up before you insert the key, make it a habit and youll be fine
thats my 2 cents anyway always worked for me. I always yank out the idiot switches. get rid of the problem before the problem can be a problem, problem solved