starter button

[rww930]

any help.....98 tourer....i took my starter buuton apart to clean contacts as it wasn't firing. this helped but i didn't have any dielectric grease so the next day i took apart again to grease the connections. starts fine but headlights don't come on. fuse is fine and wires look fine, not burned up or anything!?

help.

[X Ring]

Is the headlight on before you push the start button?  It might be something as simple as you need a new headlight bulb.

Marty

[rww930]

everything has been working fine until i went back in to grease it. now no headlights at all

[Valk6 (diaz)]

Check your start switch again, here's a link that may help you

http://www.rattlebars.com/mtz/starter.html

Head Light Contacts are part of the start switch

Ride Safe

~Chris

[PhredValk]

The tutorial says use Silicon Gel. Is that dielectric? Dielectric means non-conductive. If there's not enough pressure to move the grease out of the way to make solid metal to metal contact, there will be no flow to light up your lights.

Clean all of the grease off the contacts and try again. If it all works properly find something else to use for weather proofing and corruption.
Fred.

[Daniel Meyer]

Make sure your contacts are "springy"

[John Schmidt]

While you're at it, do the relay mod so you don't have all that current flowing through that switch.

[Bobbo]

Make sure your contacts are "springy"

Agree.  The contacts are on a small spring, and can get "gunked up".  I take the contact out and clean everything before reassembly.  You should also make sure the contact isn't bent.

[Valker]

+1 on the dielectric grease. It is NONconductive so if you use it on the contacts, you have just insulated them.

[rww930]

thanks to all. dielectric and the silicone are the same best i can tell. of all the 'directions' i read on how to do this maint., none said use the grease sparingly. you basically can't have hardly any grease on there at all. the starter side still worked with a little more grease but the headlight side wouldn't work with any at all.

long story short: took it apart again, sanded again, put back together and works better.

i will say this: if you do it, use sandpaper or whatever carefully as the copper 'nipples' can be sanded down making the contact more difficult. speaking of that does anyone know if you can buy just the copper contacts?

thanks again

[RP#62]

Dielectric grease is an insulator, but it gets out of the way and doesn't seem to interfere with the contact.  It doesn't enhance conductivity, but it does help preserve it by keeping air/moisture/oxidation away from the contacts.  The last thing you'd want to use in a switch is a conductive grease.  If it strays, you've got a path to ground.  There are applications for conductive grease but not in low volt DC switches.
-RP

[valkyriemc]

Dielectric grease is an insulator, but it gets out of the way and doesn't seem to interfere with the contact.  It doesn't enhance conductivity, but it does help preserve it by keeping air/moisture/oxidation away from the contacts.  The last thing you'd want to use in a switch is a conductive grease.  If it strays, you've got a path to ground.  There are applications for conductive grease but not in low volt DC switches.
-RP

Thankyou.

[wizard -vrccds#125]

The grease also acts as a insulator to heat. So the arc when contact is made, will not melt the plastic and bind the springs in the down position !

[John U.]

The starter switch is sold only as a unit as far as I know. It's not cheap either, HDL's price is 68.75 for the Standard and Tourer, 58.26 for the Interstate

[Kylenav]

I just did the "starter switch maintenance" the other day.  From what I'm reading the contacts on the switch side are supposed to "spring" up and down? Mine were pretty well stuck in place, I didn't want to break it by trying to loosen it up so I just cleaned the contacts, greased it, and slapped it back in.

How do you get the contacts attached to the switch out?  I pried a little but didn't wanna snap the copper and be buying $70 new switch...

Thanks!

[Ricky-D]

Stop thinking "automotive" when you're cleaning the starter switch components.

Sanding the contacts is doing nothing but ruining the switch and shortening the life of the switch.

***

[John U.]

I just did the "starter switch maintenance" the other day.  From what I'm reading the contacts on the switch side are supposed to "spring" up and down? Mine were pretty well stuck in place, I didn't want to break it by trying to loosen it up so I just cleaned the contacts, greased it, and slapped it back in.

How do you get the contacts attached to the switch out?  I pried a little but didn't wanna snap the copper and be buying $70 new switch...

Thanks!

I had a similar problem on a standard, only worse, mine failed. The original owner had installed highway lights and no relay. The switch heated up and melted the contacts into the plastic. I couldn't get them to move at all. New switch time for me, and a relay for the highway lights and headlight. You may be lucky enough to get a good one from Pinwall but you won't know until you take it apart.

[Quicksilver]

I pried up the contact plate ( the rectangular strip imbeded in the plastic) on mine just a bit without harming the switch for better contact. Some of the plastic was melted so i removed the wrippled surface with an exacto knife. Works well since.