XJ 650 not starting with starter button

Hello people,
I recently bought an unfinished Xj 650 project as a start for learning more about motorcycles and how they are working.

Right now I am working on the wiring and I am a little bit lost. I don’t have any knowledge prior to this project so bear with me as I embark on this journey. I’ve tried reading as much as I can plus watching videos on YouTube regarding wiring on this specific bike.

However I’ve run into a dead end.
When I press the starter button nothing happens.

Headlight is working / can change beams / engine is working / starter works / solenoid clicks.

I am trying following the starting issues guide and am not able to get past

“7. Hook your continuity tester between the battery's ground terminal and the Sky Blue wire coming from the bike's wiring harness for the starter circuit cut-off relay (relay pigtail unplugged). It should read an open state while the transmission is in gear. When you shift into neutral, the tester should then read a closed state. If there's no change, inspect, clean, or replace the neutral switch and its ground and retest. If it checks out, proceed to the next step.”

I only get an open state when connecting the voltmeter to Sky blue cable and battery grounding no matter the gear.

Cleaned the neutral switch with Wd 40 but no luck.. picture attached.

appreciate any help.
Model is a Xj 650 1980

 

Picture

 

bit confusing this,
you say, starter works, and engine works, but you also say nothing happens when you press the starter button.
how are you getting the "engine working"
as regards the sky blue wire, does the green neutral light come on ,when you select neutral, if it does then there is nothing wrong with the wire or switch . if it does'nt come on take the wire off the neutral switch, and ground it to a good earth. Does the light come on now, if so the switch is faulty, if not then the bulb or wiring is faulty

 

Thanks for your reply and time.
Sorry for the confusion.

I jumped the starter solenoid to see if it starts up.

The bike does not have the original speedometer / rev or plastic cover with the signals for neutral / turning etc so the connector for that is just dangling freely.

Might this be the issue that you need a working neutral light connected?

and if that is the issue - is there a way to bypass it temporarily to resolve the starter button troubleshooting?

if not I will try and find used plastic cover with all of the lights.

sorry for my English, not my first language!

 

You say you want to learn? Well this is your chance. The bike is old, and whilst as or more relliable as any, will suffer from age, neglect, and previous owners (PO's), who will have bodged and generally buggered it. So you need to fault find the electrics. For that you need a wiring diagram - do you have the right one yet? And a digital voltmeter (DVM) - actually, it doesn't need to be digital, as long as you can use it.
So, look for a grounded signal when in neutral, energising the safety relay. With the red and red/white wires from memory. You can short these out if you want to, temporarily.
The original clocks had a neutral light and some diodes that brought on the oil light when the starter button was pressed.
I could get my wiring diagram out, go through the circuit in detail, tell you what to check and where, but really, what would you learn from that?
Welcome to the forum!

 

no, the fact that there is no actual light wont stop anything working, do you have a switch on the clutch lever? if so just try starting it with the clutch pulled in.
you need to verify that the safety circuit is "seeing" the bike in neutral, easiest way to test this is to just have a 12v bulb ,with 2 wires attached , put one wire to ground and the other into what would be the feed to the neutral indicator bulb, sky blue wire at the headstock.
grounding the sky blue wire at the sump would by/pass the neutral switch

 

thanks for the welcome minimutly.

I have a multimeter and the complete wiring diagram for the Xj 650 and using it as good as I can however it’s not as easy to read and understand everything, yet..

What do you mean by look for a grounded signal while energizing the relay?

I did jump the red and red white cable for the cut off safety relay with a wire and for the first time the Xj tried to start once I pressed the start button.

@bensalf

There is a clutch switch at the lever, however the previous owner did not give me a cable that’s connecting to the switch.
i will buy a 12v bulb tomorrow and and see if it’ll light up like you suggested!

 

I found a 12v bulb in the garage.

Put Wire 1 to ground - bulb.
wire 2 from bulb to the sky blue wire head connector.

ignition on -> I hear clicking coming from the safety relay but the bulb is not turning on.

 

ok , assuming the bulb is ok, (have you tried it across the battery) then take sky blue wire off the neutral switch , and ground it.
does the bulb light?
does the bike try to start?

 

The bulb is working fine, tested.

things I did:

- tested continuity from positive battery to grounding at neutral switch at the bottom of the oil pan. BEEP.
guess the grounding there works?

- 1 wire from bulb at sky blue wire to head connector
1 wire from bulb to grounding

——> no lights up, no starting just clicking from the cut off relay

- 1 wire from bulb to sky blue wire
1 wire from bulb to Br cable head connector (as in the diagram for neutral light)
——> no lights up, no starting just clicking from the cut off relay

- I then removed the bulb, put a wire from the sky blue head connector to grounding
—-> motorcycle starts if I press start button

- all these options I tested putting the bike in neutral and in shifted gear, no difference anywhere, ignition on.
And all these options I additionally tested removing the sky blue cable from the neutral switch and grounding it elsewhere.

sidenote: I also found another sky blue wire at the back from the wiring harness, see picture. No continuity voltmeter from pos battery to this end for some reason.

 

ok, good ,then you've made progress, the reason you're not getting the test bulb to light, is because the circuit is broken on the sky blue wire, between the head connector and the wire at the sump. probably because its unplugged near the tci unit.
follow the sky blue wire from the sump ,up to the seat area, there should be another connector for that loose sky blue wire to plug into.

just a note, continuity is not tested using the "voltage" range on the meter, it is tested using the "ohm" ranges ,with no voltage present

 

I found the issue.
The lose wire in the back was indeed the problem. Seems like someone tinkered already with the wires as I had to connect the sky blue wire to a dark blue one in the back and that resolved the issue.
Starter button works fine now and everything else does so aswell.

Might get an m unit now to replace the old cables.
Thanks so much for guiding me bensalf!

 

brilliant !!,
no problem

 

i know i may sound like an idiot but i accidentally have had my kill switch activated and wondered the same thing. the kill switch is located on the right handlebar around where your light controls would be on the other side. if i help im glad lol