mmmm... sounds like a busted starter relay but let's wait for an electrical
expert to join the thread, in the meanwhile try the following, basically we
want to see if the bike runs in the first place and if power is reaching the
CDI and if the coil is working properly; if the bike starts, this will mean the
problem rests in the starting system only:

1. - turn on all switches as if ready to start bike (place in neutral)

2. - grab some jumper cables, attach to a car's battery

3 - attach (-) negative end to the engines clutch lever

4 - then attach the (+) positive end to a large screwdriver,
you will use it to briefly touch the bikes electric starter's
(+) cable/nut end, see the black rubber cap in the pic?
expose that and touch (+) there (give it a  bit of gas too).

5 - this direct jolt of current to the starter should start
the bike if all is well; this produces a strong spark and
crank to the starter; good luck



12v starter relay

conlime wrote on 09/21/09 at 16:47:37:


1. decomp solenoid, perfectly normal
2. starter solenoid, not normal
last time I got this my battery was dead as a door nail.  it's got enough juice to engage the starter, but voltage drops and causes the solenoid to disengage whence it picks up again and click, click...
becareful when you charge the battery back up, these kinds of starts can make the solenoid stick.  give the fender a whack to unstick it if it does.
check your ground cable to the bottom of the engine.

And it sounds like your battery aint taken a charge.

The battery mite be junk, true enough, but this bike quit running while running fast down the freeway if I remember. A bad battery will not cause the bike to quit running, as it will keep running on the charging system if the battery failed completely. This bike has a connection failure somewhere.

A savage won't run at all with a dead (fused) battery,
unlikely but maybe battery finally croaked while on the
highway, but then again maybe it just has loose connections.

I suggest all of you to buy yourselves a multimeter, amazon
has one for $6 bucks, I have a very similar model and works
fine after 4 or 5 years and they are really handy, here:
http://www.amazon.com/Unknown-MAS830B-Digital-Multimeter-Tester/dp/B00066ZZO4...

Well I know this sounds dumb..  But did you check to make sure the battery cables are on good and tight?  I had this problem last week and left the bike sit.  I just didn't have time to tinker as I had alot of repairs to do on the house and my toddler demands attention.  Today went out to figure out the "mysterious" electrical problem that was amazingly similar to yours.  I noticed the first thing when taking the battery out that the negative terminal was all corroded.  

Obviously it wasn't tight enough and therefore was causing the click, what appeared to be total discharge and then nothing. (Bad connection).. Pulled the battery out cleaned it, took it over to the charger that instantly said it was full..  Then went back to the bike and wow.. It worked..


- Roadie

Somebody posted a while back about scrubbing the battery terminals with baking soda + water.... I grabbed a toothbrush last week and did some battery cleaning... the baking soda+water does well at removing corrosion from the terminals and just generally cleaning up the + and - connection areas to the battery.

-Pabst

It's best to use the wive's