Hello, John Talley here with Partzilla.com. You know we've had it happen to all of us:
we go out to ride, flip on the key, and there's nothing there. No lights, no nothing. So what
do you do? Well, most people just go back inside and
hang it up for the day, but me I like to continue my day when I want to go ride.
So with a few simple tools and a little bit of diagnostic skill, you might be able to
isolate what's going on. So, if you're interested, let me go grab a
couple of tools and I can show you how to diagnose a no-start condition on our 2005
Honda VTX 1800. So let's get going. Alright, let's go through the tools we're
going to need to get this done. A decent 3/8 ratchet, 6mm Allen, one Phillips screwdriver,
and one test light. Believe it or not guys, that's all you really
need to get this bike diagnosed. So, if you would, gather up these then I'll show you
how to get it done. Alright basically, all of the electronics
for this machine are pretty much located under the seat and under these two panels. So what
I want to do is go ahead and get the seat off, pull these two cover plates, and we'll
start picking through it. Now to get the seat off, it's just a couple
of 6mm Allens that are hidden up under the edge of the seat right above the shocks. Alright
and then the seat just lifts off like that. Alright let's get these covers pulled off.
They just pull straight off because they're just held in by a couple of of rubber grommets
in the frame and these little protrusions on the cover itself.
Alright next, let's go ahead and get this cover off so I can get down to the battery
because what I want to do is measure it's voltage to make sure it's within spec.
Now honestly, I know that this is a good battery because we just installed it in a previous
video. But I still have to go through all the steps so I can show you how to do it.
So, there's just three screws that hold this upper cover in place. I prefer when I move
the ECU not to unplug it but just to move it out of the way. Because if you unplug and
plug these a bunch of times the pins actually start to wear out the sockets inside the harness.
And I don't know about you but I don't want to have to replace an entire wiring harness
because a pin got worn out. Alright, a battery at rest, in a static position,
you want to see between 12.5 and maybe even 13 volts. This one-- because I know it's brand
new-- I'll bet you it's going to be over 13. 12.98, so that shows that our battery is in
really good shape, which we knew. So, where do we go next?
Well there's fuses over on this side which go to the different circuits on the bike.
On this side there's two mains. And what we're experiencing right now is there's no power
on the machine anywhere. So, that would tend to point me in the direction of looking at
the mains. On several machines, you'll have just one
main fuse, but because this one is so large they actually have it split up into two 30-amp
fuses, and they're actually right up under here.
Alright, you're going to see three fuse locations. The first one is for the actually start circuit.
The second one is for like your fuel pump and your ECU and basically all your controls.
And this last area, that's actually not a fuse location for the use of the bike. That's
just where they have a spare so if one of those was blown you could pull one out of
the spare location. Alright, so we've got power on both sides
there. Then we move to our next one.
Power coming in, right there. And then nothing going out.
So more than likely that fuse right there is blown.
So let's pop it out and take a look. And looking at the filament, yeah, it's cooked.
So, pop another fuse in it, turn it on, and see you can hear the fuel pump start to prime,
and she's going to start right up, guaranteed you.
Alright, well that is as simple as it gets. But when is it ever as simple as it gets?
So what do you look for next? Well, if you still hit the button and nothing happens,
we'd need to take a look at the actual starting solenoid. I mean if you've turned it on and
you can hear the light turn on and you still hit the button and nothing was happening,
that's when we need to look at the starter solenoid.
So, let's take a peek at it next. Alright guys this is actually a functioning
machine, so what I'm going to do is I want to show you how this starter solenoid actually
works. The wire that I'm disconnecting at the moment
actually runs from here up to the starter. So, we're just going to disconnect that for
a moment. But you wouldn't have to disconnect that if you were actually testing out your
machine. You could just use your test light to follow the circuit.
What you're looking for here is this wire right here is your ground, and this is actually
your trigger coming from your starter button. So when you hit it, it's actually energizing
the coil and connecting this point to the battery cable, which is right over here.
So when I flip it on, push the starter button, that light should light up.
Another thing you want to notice is you can hear it making contact.
Now if you want't verify its output, put it right there and it's going to light up as
well. Now if all that checked out on yours and your
machine was still not turning over, chances are it's probably your starter. So, let's
go ahead and get that reconnected. Alright, if it's not your starter, I mean
let me back u a little bit and there's no power coming to this yellow and red wire?
Turn your ignition and and just get a jumper and what you want to do is go from that yellow
red to this positive side right here and this should spin over the bike and start it.
That's exactly what happened. Okay.
So, if that's the scenario, you keep hitting this button and nothing is going on, then
we need to look at both the kill switch and the run switch as well as the start button
itself. And that connector is actually hidden in the
headlight. So, not getting that deep into it, but all
you're going to need is just a Phillips to pull the headlight and I'll show you how to
test those connections in there. So let's get the headlight out next.
Alright, I know ya'll are probably getting scared on me, but don't be, it'll be okay.
I'll get you though this. Alright, so we don't scratch this fender let's
put a rag on there. Now, what we're after is this nine-pin connector
right there. That represents the majority of the wires that are actually running up
into that start-stop switch as well as the push-to-start.
Alright we're going back to just a simple test light to get this done.
First thing we want to check is to make sure that power is available up there.
With your machine powered on and your test light going to the battery ground, you want
to go to your nine-pin connector and go from our white to a white with a black stripe.
So that means there's power coming in. And if we want to check our wiring from here
down to the starter solenoid, if you remember that was yellow with the red.
So with it switched on, this should light up.
Which it does. Alright at this point if there was still no
power coming out of the yellow with a red, it's probably going to either be your start
switch or the start-stop switch. And believe it or not this whole thing comes as an assembly,
so when you order this one piece it'll come with both switches.
So, I mean I can go ahead and pull the assembly apart and show you how to test the internal
switches but it won't really matter because we've determined if there's no power at that
particular wire, that this is bad. If there's power coming in, it should be spitting
power back out. Alright, your starter circuit works, it'll
actually start up, but have you ever experienced one that does this? Watch this:
Starts up fine. Pull in your clutch, put it in gear and it
dies. I mean what in the world is going on there?
Well, on this particular bike it has a couple of what I call safety circuits. One of them
being your clutch, one of them being gear position switch, and the other being your
kickstand. So what I just created or duplicated is, starting
it up, putting it in gear, engaging it, and then it thinks that the side stand is down.
So, of course it kills the engine. Well, I know that it's going to actually kill
it because I've got it disconnected right here.
How would you know without pulling that cover if there was a problem with the wiring and/or
your switch? Well, it all lies with these two little connections
right there. What you can do is take your test light and
actually connect the alligator clip end to the positive of your battery.
And what you're going to want to see in a run condition is power on both of these wires.
So let's go to the first one. Got power.
Watch this. Put it in gear, shuts off.
That's telling me that that switch is working correctly.
Up here, that's your side stand. If I plug that back in? Voila. There's your power.
So, if your experiencing that particular kind of condition, if you don't have power at both
of those wires, that'll tell you where to go next as far as isolating the problem.
Alright guys, I've got her buttoned back up. Let's make sure that she actually still starts.
Switch on, that's a common mistake. Bike won't start? Check the switch first.
But yeah. Let's flip her on.
She's good to go. Well listen I told you it wouldn't be that
traumatic to go through. Basically I did all of this with a screwdriver and a test light.
So if you have these conditions, follow me through and we can determine what sort of
parts you're going to need. And speaking of parts if you've gone through this procedure
and found that you need some of this stuff, come see us at partzilla.com and we can get
you taken care of. If you have any comments or questions, leave them in the section below
and I'll do my best to answer them. And until next time we just want to say thanks for watching.