Found a Non Runner xv1000 with an xv1100 left Side Cover - Did the PO know what they were doing ?!?

I picked up this xv1000 last year as part of the 7 abandoned bikes I got from a guys front yard lol. I just pushed this one down to the lower garage and never even looked at it, but turns out it had an xv1100 left side cover on it. Seems odd as the xv1000 already had the improved starting system on it so why would someone put the 1100's on it. Come to find out....they did not know what the heck they were doing so the bike would have never run again this way.

[@josephleister9198]

Kind of a waste....mighta been a nice bike.

[@StevesDIYs]

Yep, I had hopes that the bike could be resurrected from the dead like several of the others I got along with it, but looks like the previous owner didn’t know what he was doing. The frame had been chopped in the back as if they were thinking to make a bobber, but I actually have a complete frame from another parts bike I was going to swap everything over to. Not all hope is lost though as I do have other motors I could throw on there, but would have been nice to have had it all complete as an xv1000.

[@livinglikarockstar]

have 86 1100 no spark, while replacing pulse pickups noticed starter gear teeth eat up but was still turning over ok. installed newer style gear set now solenoid won't engage and goes limp after it tries to engage. seems there binding. doing all this as had it running then for some reason lost spark can't get it back dang near replaced everything. manual engaging starter gear still turns over but still no spark no start. in north ga, you work on bikes, about toss this thing in the lake.

[@StevesDIYs]

Hey ! Not sure on the ‘86 1100, but seems like I read that they changed the slope of the Bendix barrel helix at some year so maybe that’s what is causing the binding. Yep, the way the starter solenoid works, it won’t energize the starter until the Bendix and flywheel gears are fully meshed so if it hanging up on the engagement, it won’t start.
The no spark issue should be a whole different issue I would think though. You may have already investigated all of this, but since you are having to engage the starter solenoid manually (pushing the lever in that pulls the gears over), it could just be something with how all of he diodes and circuits work. Have you tried pushing the lever over to get the gears to begin meshing (but not so far that it turns the starter yet), then pressing the start button to see if it will pull it on in and crank and spark? I’ve not looked at a diagram for a while on the early year 1100’s, but seems like the CDI gets a +12 volt signal from the start/stop button on the handle bars, but also has a defeat wire (possibly the ground) that all of the safety things tie to (side stand, if in neutral or not with clutch pulled in, etc…). Giving the CDI the ok with this wire to tell the coils to fire should rule out any switches or relays.

[@livinglikarockstar]

@@StevesDIYs definitely been researching. Anyway to energize cdi by-passing the run switch and the safeties? Thanks for the reply

[@StevesDIYs]

@livinglikarockstar 👍. You should be able to check the Red/white striped wire going to the CDI for +12 volts (I believe Yamaha was pretty consistent with that color for the keyed hot wire). For the wire that enables the CDI, I’m not sure what it’s wire color is, but it’s definitely not the orange or gray wires as those are normally colored for the coil wires.