And she likes to run all over my starter system.

can be right after a long ride, short ride, parked overnight, whatever

I put the key in, put up the kickstand (because, for some reason, the bypass I bought doesn't work), put the key to "on", depress the engine kill, and hit the starter. Sometime she fires, other times, nothing. I do every combination of redoing the kickstand, redoing the key, tinker with the neutral sensor, getting off the bike, putting the key in differently, changing the sequence of events, everything I can think of. Eventually, she fired up. Whether it be after 1 min of tinkering or 20 minutes of tinkering. Sometimes the oil light comes on, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I can see the oil light on, and I put up the kickstand and it blinks.

Any ideas?

03 M400 (Japan)

Since you mention the side stand switch being iffy, maybe see about tricking it/by passing it to show that it is "UP", maybe something flaky with it is causing this. Not sure what type of circuit it would be up or down, but that should not be hard to eliminate that as a starter, no pun intended.

Does it crank, but not start?

Or does it just not crank?

it does not crank. Sometimes, with the kickstand down, it'll crank but not start. put the stand up and it'll fire up (again, sometimes)

Sounds like the kickstand switch is flaky, but the cranking without starting is not a good sign.

Trace the wiring from the kickstand up to the plug,
The mating plug on the wire harness should have 2 wires, if you short those together by using a jumper in the plug, or splicing them together, it'll take the sidestand switch out of the circuit.

Process of elimination commencing....

That's what I'm afraid of. I'm going to have to look into some replacement parts/cleaning the stuff when I actually get some time to tinker.

Quote from: slowpoke13 on November 25, 2008, 10:23:29 PM
And she likes to run all over my starter system.

can be right after a long ride, short ride, parked overnight, whatever...

etc...
Check that yellow relay under the seat.  It seems to be a notorious gremlin, responsible for many such quirks.  I took mine apart, burnished the contacts, reassembled - good so far.

-tom

Sounds similar to a problem I had with my 600. Ended up being the safety relay under the seat. As others have suggested, try jumping the two wires with a piece of wire, if it fires up, that's your problem. Mine was also very intermittent. Lots of generic replacements that will work, here are a few.

Radio shack 900-2391
Seimans V203073
Bosch 0 332 207 307
Napa AR 634
Car Quest RY 620
Borg Warner R3223
Orman 68H-UA-0070003
Mopar 56006846

I can only verify that the Borg Warner one actually works, since that was the one my local auto parts store carried.  Hope this helps.

I haven't had a chance to look (pouring rain). I understand "under the seat." But, can someone be a bit more specific. I've found there are a few things laid out differently on these Asian 400s that don't quite match up with their US counterparts. So, anything further to aide me in locating said relay would be helpful

There are three relays under the seat.  One is the directional flasher.  This one is easy to identify.  Key on, turn on blinker, listen to identify which box is clicking.  That is the flasher, and not your problem.  That leaves two left, the main relay and the safety (sidestand) relay.  The safety relay is the smallest of the three, as circled in the photo



If you pull the relay and run a jumper wire between terminal 87 and 30 the relay is bypassed   Careful, the bike will start in gear now.

Do check the small white connector on the solenoid too.

Don't know if the '03 M400 is injected or not...  But, you could also check the clutch safety switch.  Sometimes those get rotated so they're not working at all or only intermittantly.

She's a carbie. The clutch safety switch is for FI models?

AFIAK, yes, on FI, but you can find out easy enough.  There will be a microswitch and wires in the region of the clutch lever.  If the bike is equipped with a clutch switch the purpose of the switch is to allow the bike to start in gear.  If the switch fails it should still start in neutral.

Quote from: slowpoke13 on November 28, 2008, 08:11:04 PM
She's a carbie. The clutch safety switch is for FI models?

Since she's not a US bike, I can't say for certain but Howie's post is correct.  There are three safety devices designed to control when you can start the bike.  Neutral light switch, side-stand switch & the clutch switch.  Your bike may have any or all of them installed on it.

Ok, found the relay. Clean as a whistle. The wires leading to it were a bit crimped. I tried to straighten them out. didn't run the jumper as I don't happen to have ay spare wire lying around (wish I still had all my old garage stuff). But, I will grab some when I can and try that too. She still won't start with the kickstand down, even with the bypass installed. So, I think I'm missing something. I think I"m going to end up running a makeshift bypass after I figure out where it all goes.

Also found out, no relay on the clutch lever.

She fired right up 5 times in a row. It'll be a good day for a ride.