Even if its in neutral you have to have the clutch in.... wife thinks its silly.... but puts up with it.

Ok guys, put the battery back on, it read 12.5 volts lights came on but still didn't turn over. So... we jumped the starter and it cranked up . So needless to say the starter switch needs to be replaced right? And once it was running.. After a min or two it began to smoke a little bit from where the header comes off the engine and also where the header and muffler meet... tell me it's not the header?!?!?  

Jumped the solenoid.

We honestly tapped it with a pair of scissors and that's how we got it to start when pushing in the starter, it sparked then started right up... After looking at the clymer manual it says corrosion may occur so we might pull the starter off and clean it and see what happens, if not move from there I guess...

Thanks! I'll keep this page up to remind my husband in the morning. His mom gave us the bike and said she'd pay for it at a shop but... my husband being a guy was like nah we got to learn some how lol might take longer but I'll definitely appreciate my bike more.  

Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel!  Went out today to try to crank the bike..no luck. Yesterday I pulled the starter off and cleaned it then put it back on. Husband said he checked the starter solenoid and it read at 4 volts and no corrosion on it. Soo.. Once again we arched it and last time it jumped and cranked up...then time it was turning over but wouldn't start. Maybe we are thinking it is a clogged fuel line because the fuel filter wasn't full with gas. Yet when we took the line off gas was running out so we are thinking it is pinched. But I mean I'm starting to get frustrated with this thing not cranking and my husband saying well we got 3 months til we are suppose to haul it to Gatlinburg TN, we have already had it for three months and barely progress so I'm starting to feel left out on riding while he takes off on his.   Maybe I should take it to a mechanic? But dang I don't want to go broke

Was the carb bowl full of gas?  There's a little screw on the bottom of the bowl you can open to make sure there's gas in there or to drain the carb.

I see where you said you pulled the plug.  I know it's silly but sometimes the simplest things are overlooked trying to find something harder to find, you did put the plug wire back on? Make sure the kill switch isn't set to off.  I've been caught by that once or twice until I got used to such a huge button. (Not like a Honda kill switch at all)

When you hit the start button after pulling in the clutch, do you hear 1 relay click or 2 clicks or no clicks?

I'd still be happy to ride over one day and see if I can help.  I'm only about 20 miles away.

Thanks guys! I relayed all of this to my husband.. He works second shift so it's hard to get him up and working.. it's usually me working on my own bike lol. I bought a new air filter yesterday. Question... When we got the bike the filter was missing and there was a hornet's nest in there so a genius had the idea to dump gas in there (my husband's brother)   so fuel was sitting in it. I racked out the nest and cleaned up the gas...but should I still take it apart because fuel could be else where in the air box and cause problems? Or should I just slide in the new filter and it be ok?