Dealerships mostly want to work on new bikes an old bike like yours that has been neglected is too much for them.
Pictures, questions, forums and u tube , fix it yourself.

 

Seems you are talking about the Chinese bike. No one wants to work on those. They are happy to sell them to you but don't come back for service. Most times getting parts is near impossible or they are non-existent. There is generally no support for these bikes beyond sale.

 

Cue my frustration.

Out of 7 repair shops (two being dealerships) I've called, emailed and left messages for, guess how many have replied. Go on, guess.

Did you begin your quest with the place that sold it to you? Or are they no longer in business?

Seems you are talking about the Chinese bike. No one wants to work on those. They are happy to sell them to you but don't come back for service. Most times getting parts is near impossible or they are non-existent. There is generally no support for these bikes beyond sale.

I won't do fuel system, mechanical or electrical work on Chinese bikes for those exact reasons. I prefer to not even replace tires or tubes on them, because of the way some of their smaller mini-cycles are put together.
Thankfully, I rarely see them for a second tire, because they Died or Broke.

 

Age and origin are your two obstacles.
I needed service on my 19 yo beemer and the dealership told me that they do not work on bikes older than eight (8) years. So I had to find an independent familiar with beemers since not all of them are.

 

Why not buy a generic starter button to replace the bad button? No need to understand electrical to do that. Just 2 wires.

 

It's not the button itself but which two wires to connect to the solenoid in order to actuate it. Just taking the two wires and touching them together doesn't do it. Somewhere in the wiring is a hot wire but I don't know which one to use.

 

I bought it mail-order and assembled it myself.

It's not the button itself

How do you know that it is not the button itself? What color are the two wires attached to it? Use a paper clip to jump them at the switch.
Purchase VOA meter from an auto parts store & read how to use it.

Or maybe try Ebay, Amazon or YouTube for a mail-order chinezium mechanic?

 

How do you know that it is not the button itself? What color are the two wires attached to it? Use a paper clip to jump them at the switch.
Purchase VOA meter from an auto parts store & read how to use it.

Or maybe try Ebay, Amazon or YouTube for a mail-order chinezium mechanic?

I already jumped the switch. I guess I'll buy and learn how to use a meter.

My main point isn't how to fix the bike. I'm just wondering why bike repair shops seem so uninterested in even trying to work on my bike.

 

To the original question of the OP, yeah, the quality of service has been going downhill, even at supposedly factory-trained dealers. Hard to get good young techs, and hard to keep them. That's true for car shops too.

If you find a good shop, reward them with your business. Otherwise, learn to do it yourself. There's little on a KLR that you can't learn to do yourself, especially with the help available here.

 

My main point isn't how to fix the bike. I'm just wondering why bike repair shops seem so uninterested in even trying to work on my bike.

Actually I don't blame them. There's not much in it for them. First of all they didn't make the original sale if that is part of their business. Then in a shop there is no manufacturer support for these Chinese bikes. So a shop agrees to take it on and charge by the hour for the repair. The repair goes from one thing to another and the bill gets bigger. Owner doesn't want to pay the bill but does and gets the bike back. Goes home and hits the keyboard with negative feedback for the guy that tried to help him out. It's a loosing situation that isn't worth pursuing. China has flooded the world with cheap (manufacture and price) products that just end up in our landfills. We like the cheap price part but complain about cheap manufacture. We've sent all our production over there and we wonder why we can't get support or something of quality. We did it to ourselves.


Actually on a side note - a friend has a Ural which has been laid up for better than a year because he can't get a particular transmission part from the Ruskies. It too has no dealer support. He has it in an independent shop who I am sure wishes he had never taken it on. Just taking up floor space now.

 

If you find a good shop, reward them with your business. Otherwise, learn to do it yourself. There's little on a KLR that you can't learn to do yourself, especially with the help available here.

I agree with your statement in general.

But the OP is not currently working on a KLR. The principles are the same but the wiring color codes would most likely all be different. So it would be a 'learning experience' for any mechanic to take on. Which takes extra time, which takes more money, when the job is hired out.
When one is working on something like this in ones own garage all it takes is time and methodical testing.

But a proper service manual for the model would help anyone working on it.
Probably won't find one, even if one tries.

 

cheap little Chinese dual sport 250.

that is the crux of the problem....