Electrical start problem By dazzler (Read 692 times)

[dazzler]

Hi,

Had a scan through the threads and very impressed by the level of help offered by members so hopefully some of you can help with this.

I have a Znen 125t and when I turn the key to ignition there's nothing. No fuel gauge movement, lights, or horn. So obviously no electrical start either. The bike will start with the kickstart but won't idle, which is a bit of a pain. 

I thought it was a battery problem so have replaced with a new one but to no avail. Fuse 'looks' good and have tried the spare in also which 'looks' good too. Is the fuse a necessity?

Thanks very much for taking the time and sorry if there is a similar thread to this, I did try a search but it didn't work. 

Daz

[tvnacman]

You need a fuse or you could burn the harness , just looking at a fuse is not 100% that it is good it needs to be checked with a meter or test light . As far as it not holding idle if you hold the throttle will it stay running ?

John

[alleyoop]

If your going to own a scoot and do your own work, get yourself a 12V LIGHT TESTER(COUPLE OF BUCKS) and a VOLT METER(about $7.00 BUCKS). As for checking fuses you must check Both sides of the fuse to make sure voltage is getting across the fuse to the other side.

So if the fuse is good and it has voltage on both sides, then you have to test the IGNITION SWITCH. The wire with the fuse goes to the IGNITION and when you turn it to ON it makes contact with usually a BLACK wire to feed voltage to all the guages and instrument lights that are supposed to come on WHEN the KEY IS ON.
Alleyoop

[racerx125]

a fuse is a must trust me I know from experience :S I ran without a fuse for 1 minutes as a result I burned the positive cable from the harness which made my key switch fail also sometimes the connectors form the key switch start to wiggle out with even slight vibrations and get disconnected

[dazzler]

Feb 22, 2014 11:43:28 GMT -6 tvnacman said:

You need a fuse or you could burn the harness , just looking at a fuse is not 100% that it is good it needs to be checked with a meter or test light . As far as it not holding idle if you hold the throttle will it stay running ?

John

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, once kickstarted the engine runs fine and the lights come on. The indicators don't flash, however and there is hardly any horn. Hope that helps. 

[JR]

If the fuse is indeed good then you have one of four possible problems:

Bad connection in the harness such as a dirty plug or pulled wire (probably red wire going to key switch or black wire coming from key switch)
Bad key switch
Broken wire
Bad ground connection especially the ground wire from the battery where it hooks to the frame.

Again if the battery is hot and the fuse is good and you still have these problems then it's time to start tracing out the wires.

JR

[tvnacman]

Feb 23, 2014 5:34:35 GMT -6 JR said:

If the fuse is indeed good then you have one of four possible problems:

Bad connection in the harness such as a dirty plug or pulled wire (probably red wire going to key switch or black wire coming from key switch)
Bad key switch
Broken wire
Bad ground connection especially the ground wire from the battery where it hooks to the frame.

Again if the battery is hot and the fuse is good and you still have these problems then it's time to start tracing out the wires.

JR

I agree with JR and I will add some to it as well .

The key switch is doing two things and has 4 wires . the wire colors should be red . black , green and black white . Red is power from the fuse from the battery . The black is powered when the key switch is in the run position . The green is constant ground when the key switch is in the off position the black/white wire gets ground that grounds out the cdi to to shut off the engine .

So what you want to do is check at the ignition switch that you have power at the red all the time , when you turn the switch to the run position you should have power at the black wire . If you do not have power or low power on the black wire when in the run position then the ignition switch is bad .

You said the horn is weak when running , but what is the horn doing with just the key on ?
As JR stated you could have a bad ground . The way I check for bad ground is , follow the negative battery cable it will connect to the frame with other wires in the same spot . The other wires will run to the engine and the harness . I like to take the bolted connections apart clean the loops and the frame to bare metal , check the crimps on all the loops on both ends of all ground wires and there connection points .

You can use a test light to check grounds , put the alligator clip on the positive battery and touch the ground points , it should light . This is not fool proof a test light is a very small load a weak or poor ground will light a light but not hold a load .

John

[lhumpolick]

I had the same type issue I had gages but would not start. I end up bypassing the starter relay and put in a push button switch I put a 30 amp fuse in the line. Make sure you use hd cables . I did try to trace the wires with no faults found and tried a new relay it will not start unless the key is in the switch I found the starter button switch at tractor supply for $5.00