starter relay troubleshooting

Hello, everyone! This is my first post here. I hope i'll get some help with my problems so here goes:

A few days ago my bike (1993 Kawasaki EN500A - Vulcan 500 ) wouldn't start. All i could hear when pressing the Start button were some clicks in the Junction Box containing the starter relay circuit (as the manual said).
First i thought it was the cold weather (0 to -5 degrees Celsius) but after eliminating the bad battery possibility I ended up assuming it was the starter relay. When i tried jumping the starter relay the starter motor would start spinning. So before I'd order a 120$ new starter relay i took it home for testing/repairing. I opened the starter relay metal case, cleaned the metal parts, assured the moving metal piece had free movement, closed the case. Then i put a voltmeter on the starter relay's small contacts and got continuity (so the coil inside was OK). Then i thought of putting it to the test so I got 12 V from the recharged motorcycle battery and fed them through the small contacts. And the starter relay clicked and did it's job of connecting the two big contacts, thus letting current flow to the starter engine.

I took the starter relay and put it back on the motorcycle. But it still didn't work. So i went on measuring the voltage fed to the starter relay through the 2 wires to the 2 small contacts. I got 10V when pressing the "Start" button.

So what is the problem? Are the 10V not enough to power the starter relay? Is it a bad contact problem (maybe the 2 small contacts on the starter relay not making good contact with the 2 wires feeding them the 10V). What else can i check before taking it to a mechanic? Could it still be a bad starter relay problem even though when feeding it 12V directly from the motorcycle battery it clicks and does what it is supposed to do?

i used WD-40 in all the connectors around the starter relay. i sprayed it also in the Run/OFF button and the Start Button. did my best at cleaning all the contact pins. now the starter relay engages whenever i press the start button. the starter engine also spins. i'll get the dielectric grease and treat all the connectors with it. hopefully this kind of problems will be avoided.

Cheap and easy fix, can't beat that.

Romania, Bucharest

Wow cool!

it was cheap, but not easy.
i've been working around this problem for quite some time. it was probably the lack of experience that made things so hard. if i would have started with cleaning the connectors i would have saved myself alot of trouble. on the other hand, i've learned a lot about my bike only by taking matters into my own hands and putting motorcycle parts to the test.

why are you surprised that i'm from Romania? should i understand you don't have many users from here on this forum?

A great percentage of electrical problems are do to corrosion. Corrosion treatment and prevention is necessary when dealing with electronics. By the way great troubleshooting, but always think about corrosion first by making visual inspections.