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1983 GS 1100 Electrical Gremlins

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nicholaschase29
  • Start date Start date
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Nicholaschase29

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As the weather is warming up I've had the opportunity to take the GS from the storage shed and take a couple rides. I've put maybe 100 miles on since I took it out. The battery was left in all winter and required charging when I took it out of storage. The battery was weak but was still sufficient to get it running as long as the temperatures were above freezing.

Two weekends ago I was out for a ride and stopped for 10 minutes at a friends house. When I tried to crank the bike over again it turned over a couple times and then popped. I assumed this was a backfire, as it frequently kicks back against the starter, but after this it wouldn't start. At this point all the guages were dark and it appeared that one of the cells in the battery had shorted. Out of desperation I push started the bike hoping it would run long enough to get me home, and it started instantly and appeared to be running strong. If the revs came down the guauges would go dim and the tach was jumping all over the rev ranges. It was at this point I noticed the headlight was out, but the tail light was still intact.

The bike ran for about 4 blocks until two cylinders dropped out followed by the other two. I got a battery out of my 1985 GS 700 and swapped them out. The guages were bright and clear now but neither the headlight nor tail light would come on. Also the starter would not engage. I had hot to the starter solenoid and could jump it, the bike would crank but there was no spark.

Last weekend after poking and prodding and probing and scratching my head, I found that there was no hot going from the ignitor to the RH handlebar switches. There was also no hot going to the coils. (I believe this is the same hot). If I supplied hot directly to the coils from the battery and jumped the starter solenoid to make the bike crank I would have spark. I traced the problem all the way back to the fuse block which appears to have shorted internally.

I replaced the fuse block with the block from my 700 and now the starter and ignition works, although the spark looked weaker than I would've liked. While I was this deep into the wiring I also did the coil relay mod. Even after the relay mod the spark looks weak to me.

The headlight and tail light are both blown. I do not know why the fuse block shorting out could cause this. I would think the only thing that would be able to blow these bulbs would be sufficiently high voltage, and I think the only source of this would be from a failing voltage regulator.

I had the tank off and only enough fuel in the bowls to start the bike briefly. But when I started it it would start, rev up, then die. I don't know if this was due to electrical or fuel, but during this time the tachometer would not register at all.

I am afraid that the fuse block being shorted was a secondary problem created by a primary issue that I have not fixed yet. I don't know how to test my tachometer to see if it has been blown out the same way that my headlight and tail light were.

When I had it running briefly I tested the voltage across the battery terminals and it peaked at 15 volts. Can I test the voltage regulator by itself?

Does anyone have an extra fuse block they want to sell? I'm really worried about a secondary voltage spike ripping through the system and causing the same, if not more problems a second time.

I know this is a long post but thanks for reading. If you have any questions or want pictures or clarification please let me know.
 
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I would say either your ignition switch or kill switch shorted out. The wire that feeds your ignition, igniter and crank coils comes from the kill switch then ignition switch and back to the fuse block.
 
When you say ignition switch are you referring to the key switch or is there something else? I had no power in the orange and white wire going from the wiring harness to the RH switches. When I removed the fuse block and checked continuity across the main incoming lead from the battery to the other pins that send power to the various systems of the bike I did not have continuity to any of them.

If I am misunderstanding you, or if you think those switches shorting out could be the problem that caused the fuse block to fail please let me know. Otherwise I think you may have misunderstood the symptoms I was describing; that I was unclear in describing them.
 
Maybe you lost your RR ground due to electrical corrosion. That might spike your voltage. Maybe that blew a fuse or a lightbulb. Have you spent any time pulling and spraying contact cleaner in any connectors ? Is your RR grounded to the - battery post ? Just thinking out loud. Thats where I would start....
 
I checked that. The RR is grounded to the frame but there is very low resistance. Also, I have already disconnected and reconnected all the connections and applied anti-corrosion spray.
 
Hum

Hum

I will try grounding the R/R straight to the battery.
Click to expand...

That is the first thing to do.

Attaching to the frame doesn't really do anything unless you have a good connection between the battery (-) to the engine and between battery (-) and the frame.

I have a pet theory that grounding the R/R to the frame without a lower resistance path to the battery can cause a false ground reference (of the R/R) due to frame return currents that cause the R/R ground to be elevated.

Your battery negative should be strapped with a honking battery cable to the engine.

The R/R should have the negative output tied to the case and then jumper-ed to the negative side of the battery.

I also created a copper heat sink which ties my R/R to frame ground for both electrical and thermal conductivity. So unless you do this...........

Make sure there is a good ground path between the frame and the negative side of the battery. A lot of the accessories return current to the battery that way. Not sure what the best way to isolate frame returns from the R/R ground but either
a.) make the grounds really good or
b.) do not ground the R/R to the frame, only to the negative side of the battery.

Comments welcome if somebody doesn't agree with this.

To reiterate, if the R/R ground shares a ground return from say the tail lights, then that current will tend to raise the ground reference at the R/R causing overcharging (even with a 6 wire Honda).

Pos
 
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How can I test the Tach to see why it is not registering? I'm guessing there is just a signal wire and a ground going to it. Would I need a peak volt meter to test the signal wire?
 
If you're not getting current to the ignition switch or kill switch disregard my post. :o
 
posplayr said:
a.) make the grounds really good or
b.) do not ground the R/R to the frame, only to the negative side of the battery.

Comments welcome if somebody doesn't agree with this.
Click to expand...
Make the grounds really good and ground the RR to the frame. Failure to do so will result in a charged battery and a bike that has poor operating voltage.
 
Armed only with a DMM, wiring diagram, and the resources found here, can I diagnose a non-responsive tachometer? Would I need a peak voltage meter for that since i'm assuming it receives pulse signals?
 
I'm assuming you have an electronic tach, for if it was mechanical I would say no.

You can use a DMM set to AC volts to verify the tach receives pulses from the sending unit. Increasing the engine speed will increase the AC volt readings although they will not be an accurate voltage reading; The DMM is designed for RMS sine waves. If it is DEAD and nothing changes move the the sending unit.

Look for broken wires or corrosion. Electronics are generally very reliable, connectors get damaged. You might be able to send a signal to the tach from a 4 cylinder car, but it might not read the speed correctly. A scope is the best too, or a DMM with a frequency counter, like the fluke 80 series or a 8060A like mine:lol:
 
Time for an update.

Only one coil is firing, the coil with the white lead from the ignitor going to it has no spark. I say the coil with the white lead because I switched coils and the problem switched coils, staying with the white ignitor grounding lead. Also my tach is not registering. I passed a screw driver in front of both signal generator sensors and it didn't matter which one I triggered both would fire the same coil, the coil with the black and white lead going to it. Does this mean my ignitor is fried? Do I have a problem with the signal generator wiring somewhere? or the signal generators themselves?

Thanks.
 
possibly the ignitor is bad. Obviously I would look for bad connections but it sounds like the black box is toast. Find out what models used the same one and take a broad look on ebay or the GSR for another.
 
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