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Message started by 07s40scotty on 01/30/13 at 20:37:56

Title: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by 07s40scotty on 01/30/13 at 20:37:56

Hi all! I've been away from the site for awhile because I sold my S40 for a nice profit & picked up a sweet 08 Vulcan 900 custom. I sold it to my cousin so he's prolly been on here because I told him about the site & how good it was.
I have a ? that some of the motorcycle minds on here might be able to help me with...

Anyways... I got a 86 Yamaha Radian ( 4 carb 600cc pre curser to the crotch rocket) for the trouble of taking it out of my neighbors garage where it sat for 10 years. He said it ran when he parked it so after mending the badly corrodid wiring & spending ALOT of time rebuilding & sync-ing the carbs I got it to start :D As 25yr old bikes go- this 1 was hacked & rigged as much as any other so I wasnt going to invest much but time into it til I got it to run. I even did my best tarzan when she fired up. Proud moment for me, being not really mechanically inclined but persistant.

Heres the problem- my nephew (17) tried starting the bike when I wasnt there. Its got a tricky choke along with a petcock that doesn't belong on the Radian so needless to say the bike didnt start... nor does it now. I'm pretty sure he used my Lg. box charger 4 some extra cranking but gettin the truth out of him is hard. The battery is charged fully. When I hit the start button all I get is 1 strong/loud click out of the starter relay- nothing more. Crossing the polls produces nothing. I know I should start at the front & work my way back with my tester but I figured someone here would be able to give me their best guess or starting point.

My plan was to get it to run then hit Ebay for parts like a wiring harness and better hand controls which it really needs because it seems like it could be a really fun ride.

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by Serowbot on 01/30/13 at 20:50:27

If it were me,... I'd try jumping it with a car battery (don't have the car engine running),... if it starts,.. you've narrowed it to the battery or charging circuit... if it won't start,.. they are ruled out, and it's the starter/ relay, solenoid...
PS,.. if it starts... I hope it's warm enough to ride around a bit and charge it up...
... if it ain't,.. hook up a meter on the battery, and check voltage,... if voltage goes up past 13 volts when you rev it,.. charging is okay...

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by ZAR on 01/30/13 at 21:00:50

And hope like Hades the youngster didn't crank on the thing so long he burned out the starter windings!

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by SALB on 01/30/13 at 21:22:57

455E4D1F0 wrote:

And hope like Hades the youngster didn't crank on the thing so long he burned out the starter windings!

My first thought. :( [smiley=cry.gif]

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by rustysavage on 01/31/13 at 07:43:37

I would check to see if the engine turns over maybe the little darling did more to it than you think.

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by ZAR on 01/31/13 at 10:58:41

73726C210 wrote:

I would check to see if the engine turns over maybe the little darling did more to it than you think.

Good point. Pull the plugs and see if it cranks. It may be hydro-locked. You know....cylinder full of gas due to a leaking needle valve.

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by WD on 01/31/13 at 19:13:00

http://www.badrad600.com/radian%20tech.htm

Best I can do, that's THE Radian site. Good luck with it.

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by 07s40scotty on 01/31/13 at 19:20:16

Well it has compression and isn't hydro locked lol- which would be a long shot with the symptoms of a loud click in the starter relay, plus I don't think my nephew even managed to get gas flowing. I tried hitting it with a little extra juice from my car battery, but just got the same loud click. Then I took the battery off & cleaned the terminals ( which were dirtier than I thought they'd be) and used alittle sandpaper on the contact in the starter button to clean that up and then disconnected the starter relay and cleaned the two polls good and put that back together. I was about to take the starter off to see if I could spin it by hand when I decided to try & crank it over and it worked like a charm!

Good thing I didn't yell at the lad. Was probably a combination of a few bad connections and a few more bad connections. I feel like an asz. Thanks for all the suggestions & the battery thing Serowbot. I was thinking way too deep before I read your reply.

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by 12Bravo on 02/01/13 at 05:47:07

The Radian looks a lot like the XJ Seca with a different tank. It probably has the same motor as the XJ Maxim/Seca. Those are good running bikes. I had a 650 and 750 Maxim. Hard to beet those inline 4 engines. I suggest buying/making the tools for carb syncing if you haven't all ready done so. Also check the condition of the rubber intake boots.

Title: Re: Helpful advice needed for old Rad
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 02/04/13 at 09:27:47

Hook a V meter to the starter.

Could be the contacts INside the solenoid are crapped out.