Intermittent uncontrollable Starter After Riding 1985 maxim x 700

Hey guys back again to seek wisdom. Here's the situation, I just replaced the starter solenoid on the bike after a no crank situation, only to find that the last guy put the positive and starter cable on the wrong side, one switch over and now it cranks. Since then I've gotten the bike to run pretty well mechanically, but for one issue. Sometimes after riding, when I goto shut the bike off, the starter will start to go once its off. Doesn't matter if I use the key, shut off switch, throw the kickstand down in gear, hell put it in gear and hold it, the starter just runs and runs until it cant no more. I know this is a sign of a faulty solenoid, at least I think it is, but I just replaced it not 4 weeks ago.... The only other things to note are that the starter felt very hot, albeit after an hour long ride, when I take the seat off and unplug the 12 volt starter wire to the solenoid, it still does the starting no matter what thing, and if I shake/beat on the solenoid, with enough persuasion, it will stop the symptom. Could this be a wiring of the solenoid ( can someone tell me exactly how the three wires are supposed to go to and from it with the orientation of the solenoid included, or did I just get a bum solenoid. The only other thing that may be worthy of note is that due to a tip over, the instrument cluster is cracked and broke, so maybe the 12 volt wire is doing something wonky that is causing the solenoids to go bad? The only thing is it still cranks on its own when I unplug the 12v wire so if it was getting a weird always on signal, when I unplug it it should go away? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Disconnect the smaller gauge wires from the solenoid while it is "phantom cranking", if the starter still cranks then the solenoid is probably burnt up inside and sticking. Tell me more about the replacement, there is alot of cheap crap on eBay/Amazon that will do exactly that. The poorly made solenoid will generate heat while making contact, which then burns the contacts and plate, this creates a poor connection/high resistance and more heat and eventually it kinda welds itself together.

 

I was thinking along the same lines, just was hoping it was an error on my part that I could fix . It was exactly that, a 30 some dollar part. Any idea how to correctly wire it, the info out there usually just says power to one post starter/ ground to the other. Which wire goes on the post that's linked to the smaller one via the small metal tab?

 

I don't have a wiring diagram for that bike handy but it was pretty typical of that era Yamaha to have large battery positive wire to one large post, the other large post to the starter. The two smaller terminals were usually ground from the starter switch and positive from the kill/run switch and associated relay from the safety circuits.

I'll see what I can dig up, someone else might chime in. You could unhook the large wire from the solenoid that goes to the starter and test that you only have 12 volts at the smaller terminals when the starter button is pressed and in Neutral or Clutch pulled in. Also check for 12V+ at the larger terminal for the starter when you are not pressing the start button. If so then you have a stuck solenoid. Buy a Yamaha one or reach out to Len (Chacal) for a real replacement and sleep better.

 

You likely have it wired correctly now. The XJ700's are different from the earlier versions as they have only one wire exiting the solenoid for control because they used a metal jumper for the positive side connection to the internal coil

Since you said you replaced it maybe you should just reinstall the original if it is Yamaha OEM

 

Awesome thank you so much for that picture. Never throw anything away! Even the broke bits.

 

Multimeter on it shows a constant 12.4 volts... Guess that's what the cheap crap will get you