Trying to get the motor to turn over..

[tgreen]

Well, I bought an 83' 200 big red the other day. Guy I got it from thought the motor was locked up. I got it home and got to tinkering with it and turns out the pull start assembly is all that was locked up so I took it off and was able to turn the motor over and it seems to have good compression. Since the pull start won't work I hooked a battery up to it so I could try the electric start. I hit the button and there was nothing. All the light and everything came on a worked flawlessly so I'm in the process of tracing down what to do to get the to turn over in hopes of making it run. I also tried jumping the posts on the solenoid but it only sparked and killed the lights. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? It's possible the starter may be out but I have a couple of parts bikes with starters I could rob if that's the case but don't wanna do that till I know for sure as it seems the starter is a pain to get off. Thanks In advance!

[Kale]

could be your relay.

[tgreen]

I'm hoping it's just the solenoid. I haven't tried sending a hot straight to the starter yet

[Gearheadtom]

if it sparks a bunch when you jump across the solenoid, and kills all the lights, it sounds like the starter or something is shorting out. If it is the starter, you might just have to turn it by hand a bit, then put power to it and it might go.

[EarlyBronocGuy]

Sounds like the starter is stuck. Since it hasn't been used in quite a while, the brushes are probably stuck to the armature - I had one do this to me.

Remove it from the engine, and put some pliers on the gear and work it back and forth a little until it will turn by hand. Before you put it back in the engine, hook it up to a car battery with some jumper cables (ground to starter case, positive to cable terminal), it should spin nice and fast. Only do it for a second or two each time, it'll get hot in a hurry. Once it's working again, reinstall it on the engine, clean all the electrical connections and make the battery on the Big Red is charged, should be good to go.

[tgreen]

Okay sounds good I'll give it a shot and letcha know how it turns out!