Start button quits intermittently

[earlystock]

I have had my starter button quit in me a couple times on my 14, first time was in mud and second was after tipping over in deep silt and burring the switch in the dirt, is there anyway if sealing it or do I have another issue.

[phoenix]

I have had to fix three things that have caused this issue:

1) Starter relay/solenoid went bad. You can get them on amazon for cheap and they're worth keeping a few as spares.
2) Wire corroded underneath it's sheathing just to the rear of the steering stem. We had to use an electrical tester to track that one down...it wasn't obvious by just visually inspecting the wires.
3) Key switch has gone bad...twice (will be removing it soon). I'm not sure if the 14 has a key...it's pretty worthless.

You might also check the fuse in the relay and see if it has popped. Even if it looks good, you might go ahead and try a new one since they're cheap. Do you get any clicks or noises or is it just silence when you push the button?

You'll probably need to just get an electrical tester and see if the starter button is actually sending the signal to the relay. Then test the relay. I've had relays that were bad test good, though.

[earlystock]

Thanks, I'll try and see if its a corroded or exposed wire in the stem, didn't think about that. It does have a key, but don't think that is the issue because I can kick it and it will fire right up. It don't make any noise, I have to believe that it is the switch itself shorting out or not making contact, but a corroded, exposed, or internally broken wire does make sense.

[phoenix]

I'm sure the button is a possibility. If you have a tester, you can see if power is getting to the relay when you push the button and confirm or eliminate that as a possibility. I've had relays fail on three different dirt bikes and twice on one of them. Sometimes they have clicked and sometimes they are silent.

As for the key, even when it failed to allow the bike to e-start it would still allow kick starting so long as the key was in the on position. There are four wires going into that key switch and I think part of it passes signal to the start button. My first key switch the wires pulled out of the bottom. On the current one I'm not sure what is wrong with it, but it will let the bike start but won't kill it. I think it's just too exposed to water and too fragile overall. There is a thread on the forum somewhere about bypassing it and that's what I'm going to do.

[earlystock]

I will look into the key as well, my only issue is that it has only happened twice so far, so chasing it down maybe an issue. Maybe if I turn a hose on the switch and key or throw some dirt on them I can cause one to fault.