2001 St1100 Help,turn key nothing happens, at all!

Help! Stopped to show my cousin my new(to me) 2001 st1100. He sat on it, turned the key, nothing happened! Wth? Pulled windshield, lower black shroud. I had seen the low beams flickering on and off earlier in the day.thought it could be a simple plug and unplug problem. Wrong. Don't know if that means anything. Please help! Didn't have my voltmeter with me to check the battery.

Battery conection? Fuse? Lights flickering sounds like bad ground?

Got dark, going back in the am to start troubleshooting. Which fuse should I check first?

Battery itself. Battery connections clean and tight. The main fuse located in the starter relay(right next to the battery). Starter relay and wiring going into the relay(could be melted or corroded). Remember that the whole bike is powered up at this fuse / relay assy. Your failure is probably going to be in this area....

I would first check the starter switch. If it doesn't fully return after starting these things will happen.

I will start with a basic question.. Did you check the engine cut off switch??? Is it in neutral???

Heading back up there soon, will try these things, thanks guys (sigh). I'm so depressed this morning! Better here than on my trip, I guess


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When you say 'nothing happened' do you mean it didn't start, or no lights showed up on the dash? The ground cable has a tendency to work loose because of the way it is routed from the factory. As was said, check the battery connections, make sure they are clean, and make sure your battery is 'hot'. A simple test light works wonders for finding electrical problems. ;-) If you put a test light across the battery terminals, you will determine really quick if the battery is hot or not.

30 amp fuse is good. Main metal fuse is good. Battery shows 12.7 volts...leads,wires and terminals are clean.... Help


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redst05 said:

I will start with a basic question.. Did you check the engine cut off switch??? Is it in neutral???

Click to expand...

+1, check these. Engine cutoff is the red switch on the right side.

Positive terminal lead nut was stripped, fixed back in action. Thanks everyone


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Get anything when you "jiggle" the ignition switch? They can be cleaned and returned to service. Other that this temp problem....welcome to st ownership

Niko62 said:

Positive terminal lead nut was stripped, fixed back in action. Thanks everyone


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Click to expand...

Nice that you found the problem, always start with the simple things.