SV650 Eating Starter Relays

I have a gen 1 SV650 I bought a while ago but never really rode much. It has eaten three starter relays (oem Suzuki) in around 100 miles. With a new starter relay it starts up great and seems to work normally. I am growing tired of replacing these starter relays all of the time. I tried to google to see if this was a common problem but I couldn’t turn up anything. Has anybody seen anything like this before? What did you do to fix it?

 

Check for good, clean connections between your battery-relay-starter cables. Also make sure the connectors from the relay to the wiring harness are clean and not fraying. Did you check if just the fuse is blowing or is the entire relay bad?

 

It’s the entire relay the fuses are always good.

 

Actually cable on the battery side of the relay has been replaced. The cable from the relay to the starter appears to be original but in good condition. I suppose I could do a voltage drop test on it to see if it is still good or not. I guess if the wire was bad causing low voltage at the starter the amperage would go up and may cause the relay to wear out prematurely on the switch side.

Wouldn’t that take out the fuses though if that were the case?

Are there any known issues with the starter relays going bad?

 

Without having the wiring diagram in front of me, lots of bikes don't run the starter current through a fuse. The relay connects the starter motor directly to the battery through a nice big cable. Check the ground return cable from the engine to the battery negative. Check that the starter is firmly bolted to the engine; many designs ground the starter through the cases.

 

Think you nailed it.

Check the ground return cable from the engine to the battery negative.
Which also means cleaning the mounting point on the engine and cable.

 

What exactly is the mode of failure of the relay? Contacts melted? Terminals at the connection melted?

 

No, they don't go bad.
Maybe diode has something to do with burning relays.

 

I haven’t torn one apart to see what is failing on it but it is internal and the relay will look brand new on the outside. It just stops clicking.

 

I’ll double check that as well. The negative battery wire appears to be new as well but it wouldn’t surprise me if it has paint under the wire or a bad connection. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the starter bolts were loose and falling out lol.

It’ll be a while till I have time to work on the bike again with Grattan this weekend but I’ll get back to everybody as soon as I get a chance thank you for the help.

 

I’ll do some research on this.