changed oil - now no electrics?!

[MikeJ]

This is either a very bizzarre coincidence, or I did something wrong changing my oil. My 1978 GS550 standard ran fine right up til I pulled into a parking slot to change the oil, then, when I went to start it up afterwards, nothing happened when I turned the key. Here's the exact sequence of what I did:

1. Before anything else, the new-to-me bike got a new battery and new sparkplugs from its previous owner (so he said, but I have no reason to doubt, as it was running fine, started strong, ran strong).
2. A few days ago, I put about 2 oz of SeaFoam in the oil, as recommended by another GSer, to help free up my sticky clutch, just about when it hit 14,000 miles on the odo. Ran it for about 50 miles with the SeaFoam in it preparatory to changing the oil and filter today.
3. Today, I ran the bike for about 15 minutes, running errands, to warm up the oil, then pulled into a parking slot, removed the key, and opened the trunk of my car (that's how I know I removed the key) to get out my tools, oil, and filter.
4. Put an oil catch basin under the bike, pulled the crankcase drain plug from the oil pan with a 21mm 3/8 socket wrench with extension. Wiped it off and set it aside. Removed the oil filler cap.
5. Removed the filter cover cap nuts with 1/4 socket and extension, removed filter and spring, wiped off spring and filter cover, set aside. O-ring on cover looked to be in good shape, stayed in its slot.
6. Took new filter out of box, placed spring back into center of filter cavity, placed new filter centered over spring (open end, with the rubber gasket surrounding the hole, facing aft, right?) and replaced cover. Had to wiggle the cover a bit to get all 3 studs poking out of their holes enough to screw on the capnuts.
7. Screwed on the capnuts onto filter cover by hand, snugged down tight but not too tight with the 1/4 socket (I read the thread where somebody snapped 'em off by gorilla wrenching)
8. Replaced the oilpan drain plug, snugged tight but not too tight with the 3/8 socket.
9. Poured 15w-40 Rotella into filler hole with funnel, watched thru the sight glass until it hit the "F" mark, replaced the filler cap.
10. Cleaned up and put away my tools into the car trunk (using car key, on same ring as bike key), stuck the bike key in the bike ignition, turned it, and NOTHING! No idiot lights, no instrument illumination, no headlight, no horn, no starter, NOTHING.

I hadn't touched anything electrical from the moment I pulled into the parking spot and took out the key, until the moment I put the key back in and tried to start it. Okay, mates, what did I do wrong? And if nothing, and this is just a horrible coincidence, what do I check NEXT?

[posplayr]

if there are no lights check the main fuse to see if it blew for some reason.

If so start checking the charging system as you maybe overvoltaging and this was just coincidence.

get your schematic and start at the battery moving to fuse box ignition switch and back to see how far electricity is getting.

[MikeJ]

if there are no lights check the main fuse to see if it blew for some reason.

If so start checking the charging system as you maybe overvoltaging and this was just coincidence.

get your schematic and start at the battery moving to fuse box ignition switch and back to see how far electricity is getting.

Thank you for the hints. Overnight I thought I may have blown the main fuse but could not imagine why, unless it was coincidence - it's not like I had been digging around anywhere such that I may have stripped insulation from a wire or pinched a wire between 2 components or something like that to cause a short.

I went out to the bike again this morning, with shop manual and electrical schematic in hand, thinking to look first for the main fuse, which I fully expected to find blown, then to trace the probable short. However, first I stuck in the key, turned it on, and VOILA! Lights, horn, starter, ignition.... no problemo. Also, the engine ran fine with no leaks, good pressure, now that I could check the results of yesterday's oil-and-filter-change handiwork. As far as the electrical glitch goes, though, it's like yesterday never happened. Spooky.

Except, it DID. And I don't want the bike to go dead on me again, in the middle of East Nowhere someday, with my cellphone battery dead too and no shoulder to park on or whatnot.

So, what was it? A loose connection leading to the ignition switch, maybe? Is this a common occurrence on older GS's? What should I be looking for in terms of that connection? Simple individual spade connectors, or a nylon multi-connector plug? And, where is that connector located - hanging loose below the switch, or stuffed into the headlamp shell? I can't really see much of anything at the moment in that area, because of the fairing, and don't want to take off and re-install the fairing if I don't have to. TIA,

[posplayr]

Thank you for the hints. Overnight I thought I may have blown the main fuse but could not imagine why, unless it was coincidence - it's not like I had been digging around anywhere such that I may have stripped insulation from a wire or pinched a wire between 2 components or something like that to cause a short.

I went out to the bike again this morning, with shop manual and electrical schematic in hand, thinking to look first for the main fuse, which I fully expected to find blown, then to trace the probable short. However, first I stuck in the key, turned it on, and VOILA! Lights, horn, starter, ignition.... no problemo. Also, the engine ran fine with no leaks, good pressure, now that I could check the results of yesterday's oil-and-filter-change handiwork. As far as the electrical glitch goes, though, it's like yesterday never happened. Spooky.

Except, it DID. And I don't want the bike to go dead on me again, in the middle of East Nowhere someday, with my cellphone battery dead too and no shoulder to park on or whatnot.

So, what was it? A loose connection leading to the ignition switch, maybe? Is this a common occurrence on older GS's? What should I be looking for in terms of that connection? Simple individual spade connectors, or a nylon multi-connector plug? And, where is that connector located - hanging loose below the switch, or stuffed into the headlamp shell? I can't really see much of anything at the moment in that area, because of the fairing, and don't want to take off and re-install the fairing if I don't have to. TIA,

Sorry I would not be too spooked, make sure all of the connections are clean and secure.

There is some contact spray cleaner Duanage mentioned in a recent thread. Clean them out. Then apply dielectric grease. I also learned that some plugs can just come apart due to vibration.

i bought some of the 0.5-1.0" shrink tubing from Harbor freight (it is less than $10 for 4 rolls) I pull the shrink tuning back over one end, then get a zip tie and go end to end of the connector after pushing together. Don't have a pic but the zip ties threads through the wire ends goes end to end and through on the other side. No way the connector can come apart then and no need to super glue like some other PO's have done .

Then pull the heat shrink over and shrink it. Not completely water tight but pretty well protected and it is not coming apart.

I had done this to my indicator box on my ED and at one point took it back apart. When I did I must have spaced and forgot to re do the zip tie and heatshrink. Sure enough I get a headlight warning and after screwing around come to find out it was simply a loose plug.

The bottom of your ignition switch should also be cleaned as well. All the electrics are at the base.

[MikeJ]

Thanks once again for the good advice sir.

After posting this morning, I went for a ride to do some errands, and it happened again! Fortunately I was in the right lane, waiting at a red light, a couple of blocks from the home garage when it happened, so I could just pull up onto the sidewalk and investigate. Onto the center stand, unlock the seat, take out the tool kit, pop off the right side cover, and start by checking the main fuse - mine was the old fashioned glass tube type, in a translucent plastic in-line holder. Well, there was the problem - the fuse (no doubt a 32 year old original) had a hairline crack in the thin flat metal strip (corrosion? vibration? or a short? My guess is one of the former) so, when the bike was cold, it made contact and everything ran hunky-dory, but when the heat from operation caused the 2 halves to curl away from each other, the result was sputter/die/no electrics at all. Which is exactly what happened to me after changing the oil yesterday, and again at the stop signal, running fine in between.

The glass of the fuse also broke open, right inside one of the ferrules, as I took it out of the holder, so my guess is, there had been air and/or moisture getting inside the glass tube there for some time, leading to the problem. Trusting that the fault was not due to a short elsewhere (a calculated risk), I reconnected the wiring by snapping one end of the OEM fuse holder into the other end (each was simply an Omega-shaped brass fitting at the end of a loose wire, so they easily nested together as a snap fit), snapped the translucent plastic fuse cover back over the joint for insulation, put the side cover back on, and headed off to complete my errands. Which now included, a stop by the hardware store to pick up a modern, ATM-type automotive mini-fuse holder (a $1.95 upgrade) and a box of 30 amp green ATM fuses to fit in the new holder (2.29 the box), and two blue wire nuts (9 cents each) to secure the new fuse holder pigtails onto the existing wiring, with a little silicon dielectric grease I already had on hand. Total repair cost, $4.60, including 4 spare master fuses which went into the bike's tool bag.

I will, however, look forward to prodding around under the fairing and cleaning/greasing/reattaching all of the bullet connectors, and covering them with shrink wrap as posplayr suggests, as a winter project. Right now, I want to take advantage of the waning days of summer, and ride my new 1978 zuki.

Sorry I would not be too spooked, make sure all of the connections are clean and secure.

There is some contact spray cleaner Duanage mentioned in a recent thread. Clean them out. Then apply dielectric grease. I also learned that some plugs can just come apart due to vibration.

i bought some of the 0.5-1.0" shrink tubing from Harbor freight (it is less than $10 for 4 rolls) I pull the shrink tuning back over one end, then get a zip tie and go end to end of the connector after pushing together. Don't have a pic but the zip ties threads through the wire ends goes end to end and through on the other side. No way the connector can come apart then and no need to super glue like some other PO's have done .

Then pull the heat shrink over and shrink it. Not completely water tight but pretty well protected and it is not coming apart.

I had done this to my indicator box on my ED and at one point took it back apart. When I did I must have spaced and forgot to re do the zip tie and heatshrink. Sure enough I get a headlight warning and after screwing around come to find out it was simply a loose plug.

The bottom of your ignition switch should also be cleaned as well. All the electrics are at the base.