Starter Relay Jumping

So I just finished the putting my xj550 Seca back together. I did the minimum wiring diagram and all. I went to start it up and no go. I only got a click from starter relay. I checked the wiring again and again and again. charged the battery and checked the voltage, 12.96v. I tried jumping the relay and didn't even get a click, just dead air.

Next I checked all my ground connections. moved the main one off the battery and tried jumping the relay. I got noise. A real strong spinning noise, but the engine does nothing. No Chug, not wind up, no backfire, just the starter spinning...

Any thoughts?

Here is a pic of the bike a few weeks ago.

 

1. bad starter relay.

2. Starter spinning but engine not spinning could be:

Faulty or missing planetary gears in the starter.

Starter nose gear woodruff key sheared or missing, allowing the gear to spin on the shaft.

Starter clutch idler gear (in the engine case) broken, mislalgned, or missing.

Starter clutch worn or broken. Split engine case to repair.

 

I tried 2 different relays. 1 was brand new.

As for the starter itself. I just had it rebuilt by a starter rebuilding company locally. Maybe my terminology is wrong, the starter is trying to turn over the engine, however it's just not doing it. I think saying spinning was the wrong thing to say.

I cleaned the carbs before I tried to get it started.

The only way I've ever been able to get the bike started was with starting fluid, however the bike didn't have an airbox and you could actually spray it in the carbs. With the airbox it's nearly impossible. It was tons of work to get started before pulled the wiring harness, rebuilt it and did all the work to the bike. I kinda feel like i'm back to square one.

I read somewhere that the mixture screws on the carbs need to be 2/3s out.. can someone post a picture of what this screw looks like?

Lastly... is there something I should be looking for specifically, to see if I something wrong with the wiring? would that be causing it?

 

The starter could very well be turning the wrong way if the rebuilder clocked the brushes incorrectly.
Open it up and make sure the tabs on the brush ring are oriented correctly.

How To: http://www.xjbikes.com/forums/posts/406938/



Idle mixture screws are located next to the enrignment plungers (pull the chike and you'll see the plungers move). They were covered by brass caps at the factory, so if those are still in place then the carbs were not fully cleaned. The screws should be set to 2 1/2 turns out from being softly seated. That is a baseline setting, tuning should be done from that basis.

 

a good starter should turn the engine over about 700 rpm (a guess) check the battery voltage while it's cranking, if it's 10 volts it just won't start unless you're real lucky.
take a plug out, ground it, crank the starter and see if you have sparks, it'll be small so look close

 

if you look under the cover for the ignition pickups, the rotor should spin the same way as the tires

 

Good news, I got the bike running. After stripping the bike and building it back up, I failed to make sure the ground connections were solid and bare metal. Once I corrected it. It started right up without any issues!

Thanks for everyone's help!