There is no small ground wire that I can find. Cold weather and duck season will be here soon, I have got to fix this.

 

The the wiring harness has to gets it's ground from somewhere on the frame and that could well be your problem. Where it is at I can't tell you, maybe if you have a good dealer his mechanic could tell you.

 

Just a simple process of elimination, take a wire approx 14 guage, and ground it from the motor to the NEG terminal of the battery. Turn on the key and see if you get lights. If you do, it's just a matter of finding the place were it's supposed to be. Hope this helps.

 

Great idea Bluethumb, Even an alligator clip cord would work for the test.

 

It was grounded back to the belt housing. I cleaned the connection and still nothing worked. I will try adding another ground, that is a brilliant idea, don't know why I didn't think of that.

I still think there must be something blown up or shot somewhere. What does the CDI box do?

After I get it cranked why is there a flicker in my lights and instrument panel? There has to be a simple solution.

 

I still think it may be the switch. If the CDI was bad, it wouldn't run, no matter what you did. Did you try jumpering the start solenoid? That will tell you if the battery is good to that point. The reason the lights come on after you start the engine is the charging system is running everything and if the switch is bad, this is what would happen, because the charging system is on the motor side of the switch. The lights flicker because the charging system pulses at low speed. That's another reason why I think the switch is bad.

 

Ther have been many good thoughts expressed in this thread, but consider this: The key is turned on, and there are <U>no</U> lights. I feel that if you fix this problem, the rest will be fixed too. Either there is a poor ground to the system, or there is inadequite positive AMPS. You can have 12 volts available, but if there aren't enough amps, the system won't work properly.

Anyway, I don't remember reading that duckdawg has checked his battery. I could be wrong. Did you ever try jumping it from a car battery? If that is good, then follow the battery cables and test for voltage (or a lack of) <U>with the key turned on.</U>

If the starter solonoid doesn't have proper ground or positine voltage (amps) supplied to it, it will never work.

 

I put on a brand new battery, trickle charged it overnight and still nothing worked. I am not sure how to jump it off the starter solenoid, I have done this with lawn mowers, but can't figure it out on the cat. Is there anyway to check the switch without changing it out?

 

replace the starter relay i had the same problem on my 500 cat there is a small wire built in thr starter relay that feeds power to everything else remove the starter relay and i bet you will find the little wire which feeds the 30 amp fue will be corroded in half its the same terminal that feeds back to the battery let me know what you find by the way relay is around $65

 

The starter solenoid has 2 large terminals for the battery and starter and 2 small wires out to a plug (about 2" long, 2 pin plug, 1 male and one female). One wire is ground and the other is for the start power from the start switch which gets in it's power from the key switch. Unplug the plug, test across the plug on the bike harness side for ground at one pin (should be the male pin usually the black wire and the other should be 12 volts ( the female on the harness plug) with the key on and the start switch depressed. To test the solenoid, on it's plug ground on side (the female pin) and put 12 volts to the other (the male pin) and the starter should run. BTW, to the solenoid the polarity of the power doesn't really matter but it is best to test it like it is suppose to work. I still think there is nothing wrong with the solenoid and you will find a lack of power (probably no power) or ground on the harness side.