Well tried the screwdriver cross the relay deal, nothing. Decided to pull the starter. Pulled the starter and long story short there is a wire burnt or hole where the wire used to be in the armature, see photo, and the wire swelled up in the sleeve with the magnets and prevented it from moving as well. One of the brushes was chipped and chipped brass laying around in the cap where the brush dust collects. I guess that would account for the no start. Now to figure out why it cut power in the first place I guess.
Just few questions...
1. Since this is my first shaft driven cycle and/or Goldwing; do you hear any gear type noise at all, and/or how would I know if that is normal?
2. Would the starter being accidently on, or rather locked engaged be so overwhelming, noise wise, that there would be no mistake that something is wrong while the bike is running? i.e. under 35 mph
4. And if the starter being accidently on was subtle how long could that go one before "smoke". I know tough question but if it went on for a second or so while turning I may have missed it.
I just remember the chain of events like this;
1. start warm bike fine a store
2. normal stop/go 35mph drive for 3-5 mins or so
3. wait at stop light
4. turning left and at apex engine cuts out (fog of war sets in at this point, my best recollection)
5. power loss on gauges
6. clutch is pulled in and very quickly starter button applied
7. starter flutter sound, no start, followed by electrical burn smell (followed by other smell as shorts are stained at this point)
8. bike comes to stop
OK lots of possibilities at this point, I wasn't filming it so I cant really remember but I think bike got power back at this point on its own else I turned the key off and then on (I cant recall)
9. attempt to get bike in neutral but bike acts like just turned on dash indicator lights coming up so cant tell (gets foggy here)
10. bike possibly confused over reverse and neutral while trying to get bike in neutral (if this really happened, it happened for about a second or so) else lights were coming on and reverse just happened to light up but I remember struggling to get a neutral light, may have had it in first and flopped to second who knows. (all I know is brown skid marks at this point)
10. bike on center stand on sidewalk, key turned on, all functions normal, starter button depressed, just a click (like and elevator, lets press it a few more times maybe it will go faster) nope.
11. see a downward slope, pop clutch in first, rolling start, drive bike home all functions appear to be normal
12. get home, shut bike off, try starter <ya who I'm I kidding
13. put charger on bike
14. next morning try all the stops, jump start, screw driver, etc... nothing
15. pull starter (and wash shorts)
16. open starter up discover frozen armature and burnt wire
17. post on CGW forum (at least I got #17 correct)
Paul