starter relay solenoid

[tedincanada]

Hello all. As I am pretty much a rookie regarding fixing up a bike I hope with all the people here I will be able to get my 1984 VT500C back up and running. The bike has been sitting undriven for a while. It was in running order when I put it away but there has been some starting issues. The starter relay solenoid seemed to be acting up so I ordered one on line and when I put it in there was some smoke comming from what looks like an electrical termination point under the seat. I have no idea what it is or what I did wrong. I am charging up the battery over night and will try again tomorrow. Any thoughts?

[BrianVT500C]

Hi Ted, I have the same bike. Probably best to pull the seat off and check all of the connectors to make sure they are solid, also check to make sure you rewired the solenoid properly. There is a service manual for your bike in the "Technical Discussions" forum in the "Sticky" section at the top - "Honda Service Manuals" and then scroll down to the vt500c. Good Luck

[tedincanada]

So I did a quick visual on the wiring and, like many before me, saw some corrosion on the coupling for the stator so hard wired the infamous yellow wires together. I then hooked up the solenoid relay switch again but as before, the fuse blew immediately upon hooking up the negative wire to the battery. Wanting to also see if the bike would turn over to see if the starter motor was the problem I followed the advice I found here to "hotwire" the bike by placing a screwdriver between the 2 posts on the relay solenoid. The engine did turn over but not start and after the second try the battery blew every single cap about 20 feet in the air right past my head with a very very loud bang. Not sure what I did wrong but suffice it to say after pushing my heart back down out of my throat, I was done for the day. I guess now is step by step, wire by wire to try and find this short. I have no power to the switches up front so I guess that is a place to start. Any advice to keep me from killing myself would be great. THanx

[tedincanada]

Well, a few more hours sodering this and cleaning that. A tweek here and a tweek there and after 2 years of sitting... It's ALIVE IT"S ALIVE!! Cpl more small things then back on the road. Yippy!!