Ruling out the multifunction meter on xl800

[Myself]

Trust me........you're not the only one that's ever done something like that.

[leanngreen]

Hey so I got this a couple days ago but just been all out nonstop. I took a pic other day cause I just had to share. Once I looked I realized how stupid this was. Make sure no one makes same mistake I did .. I think what happened was in the midst of the hurricane after things settled of course I went to check on my jet skis and make sure damages, then get them to run , etc This particular one wouldn't start when prior it had no issues at all. I was really at a loss how this could suddenly happen. When I got the poor / weak connection sound at the solenoid, I think what I did was after checking grounds, etc I pulled the spare off my shelf and tried it . Well, obviously it didn't work. Then I realized and tested the battery and found it was dead , replaced it, tried again and still dead. Well, again look what I did ! Now I am really scratching my head and stressed some. Yep. A red wire going to ground! It was the main feed wire. No idea how in the world but regardless my stupidity hopefully helps someone else down the road. I did buy an extra part I didn't need which I hate doing unless I know for sure but in this case with something this old its not such a bad thing to have backup stuff. So not a huge loss there. Thanks Myself for helping me through some of this and taking time. Its about time to ride again and hope everyone has a great and safe summer.

[Myself]

The small red goes on the BATTERY SIDE......NOT.......the starter side. If it accidentally gets on the wrong side everything will be dead. There should NOT be any blacks hooked ANYWHERE on the starter solenoid. Maybe post up a pic.

[leanngreen]

I think I may have figured this out after it really bothering me for some time because I know these things are always something really stupid generally and then you ask yourself how in the world?? I will update later with some pics showing what I am pretty sure is wrong in this mix and am able to verify my suspicions.

[leanngreen]

On battery side there is a black which goes to ground then on ignition ( all else ) side is red that side is dead even with a new solenoid this is where im very lost unless i have 2 bad solenoids and i know its totally possible they both are fairly new with one literally pulled off my shelf and is an oem yamaha part right out of the box realizing its pretty basic system yet scratching my head it is about the only thing that makes sense at this point remember in beginning i said the solenoid did make a noise with starter button depressed but it was that sound as if a bad ground and not enough current to power the starter up which led me to check ground and was fine then learned battery was actually ng replaced that and nothing at all since i grabbed the second never used solenoid simply cause its easy enough to swap and still nothing either will work when you jump the terminals which usually means solenoid

[Myself]

Post #12......small red wire on battery side of starter solenoid supplies power to fuses and so on.

[leanngreen]

WELL WELL WELL an update for anyone ... rectifier came in and made 0 difference. I got the meter out and again rechecked the continuity of the wires including powers and grounds. They all seem to be ok. There is no doubt power coming into the solenoid but then power does not leave ?? Where the heck does it go? I tried another solenoid and exact same thing. I checked the black wire off the solenoid which runs off the power in side and goes to ground. Seems fine. So, power and ground but then thats the end. Tried with switch in on and off position to start and it does not change the values so somehow the power is coming in no problem but then after that ? This is odd. I like challenges but now I am beginning to get frustrated. Tomorrow was planning a run to get the jet skis up and make sure ok for summer but this sucker ain't having it. Odd thing is there is nothing really to it. My question I guess at this point is once power comes in from the battery ( which is indeed fine) what path does it take from there before it is in start mode. Or send power down to the starter telling it to crank over am I now back to the meter problem I first had? I would think there still would be power to the starter unless it needs to go through the meter and code to start? Is that my middle man standing in the way? If so , then that was the culprit all along. Nothing else has made a difference. Welcome to any and all advice or tell me how stupid I am . I can take it !

[leanngreen]

I will check I have a parts ski that I bought some time ago but a lot of it was already gutted inside, parts in bags, etc. No telling what is good anymore when they get this old. Hence why I opted for another start switch in case one day it quit. I did check and they are only about $123 which is doable. The problem I keep having is every time I order anything these past few months whether its Yamaha, Kawasaki, anything, even a simple gasket, its not uncommon to get an " on backorder" status after placing an order. Frustrating. I will keep everyone posted when I get to the next step in case anyone else runs into similar issue. Thanks again .

[Myself]

Well......a rectifier shouldn't be too expensive. IF it's the same as a GPR1200 I have one I could send you to try for the price of shipping.

[leanngreen]

Thats where I started thinking the rectifier. One side of the fuse is to ground and other side from the rectifier. There is no power whatsoever. Remove fuse and test the power side and its dead. Thats is where the loss is unless I am wrong to me it looks like the rectifier for whatever reason took a retirement. Far as the multimeter not working I think that is another issue. When I connect it to the battery is does not go through the cycles and get to code at all. I think there are possibly 2 problems. The power from the rear and the meter also. First getting power to the front is whats needed. Meter is secondary.

[Myself]

If you have 12v IN to the main fuse but no power out.....either the fuse is bad OR there is an internal break in the wire that you can't see.

[leanngreen]

Ok I have not been able to get back to this lately but just did for a while and weird thing is there is 0 power out of that fuse. Grounds are all good and seem good , I checked and rechecked all the connectors in that box and everything appears to be connected ok. I swapped the solenoid for another known good solenoid and same. I can jump the terminals at the solenoid and it cranks over as it should but after that its like it loses power going to anything forward from there. No power on the other side of the solenoid with switch depressed , I reconnected the meter ( multifunction ) and disconnected the blue connector to see if the warning light would come on and nothing at all. I am considering that rectifier. The system is not that complex and yet power goes in and won't come back out. I dont have a schematic but visually tracing the wires looks as though that is inline and could possibly be a part of the power problem.

[Myself]

OK, start with the solenoid. Should have 12v on red from battery. Should also be a small red wire on that same side.....trace that one to the problem.

[leanngreen]

Ok this is strange. Suddenly appears there is nothing there at all. I tried with switch plugged in and not and trying to push start and nothing so now I guess its back to tracing the wires back. As I said it was fine and no issues hurricane came through and since then ? Very strange. I wonder if something shorted out..... I will keep investigating..... the battery which also was ok prior just stopped without warning as well and usually they will let you know when they are on their way out a little bit ahead of time. The last time I got anything back to the solenoid was a weird sound like it was trying to send voltage through but couldn't . Thats when I checked the battery and found it was ng. New battery and nothing at all now anywhere except if I jump the solenoid terminals it will turn over

[Myself]

Sorry, need to check red or brown to ground. I can't remember offhand which is supply but I think it's red. Then when you push starter button the 12v returns on brown. So, check that out.