Sticky Solenoid? Early ZX6R Starter Engagement Problem

Folks,

Macca's tracky has an issue where if I press the starter sometimes it's just a faint click, and nothing much else happens unless I reach under the seat and thump the plastic battery box thingy. I used to have a similar problem with my old XC Falcon where the starter solenoid would stick and a thump with the end of my club lock would free it up and it would start. This sounds more like some sort of loose connection to me, anyone got any ideas to enable trouble free starting every time on Toosday?

I think the starter relay is just behind the battery, could be that?

I am assuming the Kawasaki in question is the same as my Hornet (my previous old Kwakkas were). These have the battery wiring terminated in a crimp connector with a hole for screwing onto the battery terminals. I'm also assuming the battery is good. This may be a big assumption, it may have an internal issue where tapping the case makes a connection.

If it was up to me I would disconnect the cables and pull the battery out.
Clean the battery terminals with very fine sandpaper/emery cloth. If they are rounded off file them flat with a fine file so the crimp connector has a flat surface to sit on.
Clean the crimp connectors themselves with the same sandpaper paying close attention to the state of the wiring attached to the terminals themselves. Do the wires need cutting and re-crimping or are they securely crimped/attached?

Re-assemble everything and ensure the screws holding the wiring to the battery terminals are tight. Does the problem still occur? If not, woo!
If it does follow the cabling and check every component/connector and wire sequentially. You might want to check the connections on the starter motor as the next starting point, the problem with bikes is that everything is out in the weather and gets covered in road grime and other crap. Alas road grime and crap don't conduct electricity and generally will promote corrosion...which also doesn't conduct electricity .

Can you borrow a known-good battery? This may be worth trying too.

Good luck with it, electrical problems can be a bitch.

Mick

...so how did this go?

Mick

Erm, we didn't have a problem with it at EC on the 26th, and I haven't done anything about fixing it yet...



Will get around to it one day

Could also just be a starter relay in it's early stages of failure.