I've just had my '83 1100 GL for about 6 weeks. It's been below freezing here for the last couple of weeks so I haven't had a chance to ride it. It finally warmed up today and so I started it up just fine. Then my jacket sleeve must have caught the kill switch. I pretty well ran my battery down before noticing that. I put the charger on my battery and charged it up but all I get is the solenoid clicking. I put the voltmeter across the battery and have 12.6 volts, but I know that doesn't mean much. I thought maybe I had a dead spot on my starter so tried the hammer trick. Then the starter started spinning but wouldn't engage the engine. I also have a starting position on my charger and tried that briefly, and either it clicked or the starter spun. I think I'll have to pull the starter to see what's happening. Anyone have any ideas?

First, welcome to the forum. Sorry your first post has to be a problem. I'm not a wrench guy, but I thought the problem might be the battery not being fully charged but now that you say the starter spins but nothing happens I think you are going to have dig deeper. Sorry, I can't be of more help, but there are others on the board who can and I'm sure will give you some good advice. Good luck..

Thanks for the welcome. I've since looked at the old service manual and it says you can run a wire from the positive terminal of the battery to the positive terminal of the starter. I could only find the one terminal and I assume that it's grounded through the body. If the starter doesn't work, then it's the starter. So I get no response on the starter when I do that. So it could still be the battery, but I also tried it briefly with the starter function on my battery charger and still no response. It has to be the starter. At least there seem to be lots around on eBay.

Put in a new starter today and it works like a charm.

hello and welcome to GWOF awdyck

Glad you found your problem. Now go ride.

... Howdy ... You Got It Fixed Very Good ... My Call Was Going To Say Rebuild Or Replace The Starter ... Happy Trails ...

My 82 done the same thing tonight. It has been cold and it had not been run for about three weeks now so I thought I would start it and let it run a little while. Well it would not fire till it got down to the last crank that the battery had in it. I let it set a few minutes and tried again and it fired up but cut right back off, its pretty cold out tonight so I put the charger on it and let it charge several hours and no all I can get out of it is a click. Fully charged battery and only a click. My starter has never given any problem till now.

I Have 83 An Had Same Problem Checked Battery . Before I Started It Check To See If It Was Charged It Was 12.6 Thought That Was Fine Then Checked Voltage When It Was Running 14.4 Come To Fine Out It Was Battery An Battery Was New. I Guess The Moral Of Story Is Some Battery Arn T What They Seam. It Was The Best Battery I Could Buy I Thought. Now Have Cheap Walmart For Two Years An It Works Great.

As I said in an earlier post, if you run a wire from the positive terminal on the battery to the terminal on the starter, the starter should turn over. If nothing happens, you've got a bad starter.

OCV open circut voltage. When checking a battery's OCV you must wait 24hours after a charging event to get a correct reading. Basic readings 12.8v or higher 100% charged,12.6v = 75%, 12.4v = 50%, 12.2v = 25% and less than 12.2 can harm the battery if you try the starter, less than 3.5v in a 12v during storage and it should be unrecoverable. I stripped and cleaned my starter on the roadside then rebuilt at home $25 for a brush set and $10 for bearings and seals.

14.4v while running is fine but to check alternator out put you really need to check charging Amps