G1 gas, what voltage should blue and yellow wires show

[shashashane]

Hello everyone, great forum, lot of reading and not much posting to date so here's my first. My Yamaha G1 won't start. It ran like a top when I bought it then last year it started would start but not drive for a little while, took some coaxing. Then my son took it out and called me for a tow from the other side of the hood.

So here are the symptoms:
-Key operation in main switch is kind of goofy, sometimes doesn't engage forward or reverse, have to hold your mouth just right
-In reverse the backup alarm sounds anemic
-When the pedal is pressed down on either direction the starter "may" spin a quarter turn and stop, always here a strong click
-Checked voltages as best as I can follow the "Yami won't turn over" thread and everything seems to check out except I can't find a red wire plugging in to it. 12.5-12.8v on all the checks. The blue and yellow wires report 11.5v when the respective solenoid is engaged.

Here's what I've done:
-Replaced the 10A fuse behind the battery; while i was checking it the starter surged and I thought there was a short, the fuse filament was bent but not broken. I replaced the whole apparatus to no avail
-replaced the battery and cleaned up all the terminal connections
-ordered a new main switch since it's broken anyway... should be here in a few days

So after all that my main question is what should those voltages read and is there anything else I should check?

Thanks,
SSS

[smallblock450sl]

You should read "over" 11.5 volts on the yellow and blue solenoid activating wires. You should read full battery voltage, should be over 12 volts. Also, the black wires to the solenoids should read full battery voltage with pedal off or depressed.

[shashashane]

Thanks for the info. I installed the new main switch today and the backup buzzer sounds better, solenoid still clicks but it still won't spin the starter. Same voltage reading, about 11.6v on the yellow and blue wires. So I made your steps into a troubleshooting flowchart and will post or pm to you in a few days when I get permission on the forum. Two things I'm unsure about from the sticky post...
1. solenoid test, small red wire and black wire I do not have on mine, this is an oooold G1, which wires are you referring to in that test?
2. voltmeter 101: I've been clamping the black wire on my voltmeter to the battery neg post (and testing with red lead) for most tests except the few tests where the connection obviously goes back to the neg post, then I swap to pos post. Am I doing that right?

[Bubba75]

Welcome to the obsession!

[shashashane]

no doubt! I keep going back to the shop thinking... hmmmmmm... what about that wire... no... hmmmm.