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Bike Suddenly Cut out.

Nerobro

Nerobro

Forum Mentor
On the fourth I was riding my bike. I had gotten about 4 miles from home when the bike completely lost all power. it was as if the bike lost spark.

I was doing steady state driving, at 50mph. Very light throttle.

the bike was getting fuel. (at least the carbs had gas in them) When I pulled the plug to check for spark the spark is VERY weak. However, there is spark.

While the bike was coasting down, there was one backfire. There was one other backfire while trying to restart the bike later. And one more yesterday when we went to pick it up. I usually associate backfires with very off timing.

Any thoughts would be apreciated. I'm at teh point of going "screw it" and rebuilding my wiring harness with GOOD connectors and nice soft sillicone coated million strand wire.
 
Nerobro,

Recently, I had the exact same symptoms with one of my GS bikes.

After some diagnosis and swapping out parts from another bike with known good electronics, I determined that my igniter box had gone south.

I believe that you and Skreemer have enough GS bikes between the two of you, to try this out.

Simply take an known good igniter box out of another bike and swap it out with yours.

You can do this without unbolting yours from your bike. Just disconnect your plastic connectors from your box and hook-up the connectors to the test replacement igniter box connectors.

If the problem goes away, you need a new (or used, but operative) igniter box.
 
Greg, having dealt with a similar a problem a couple weeks ago, I'll tell you what was done to remedy my problem. Your sympoms are not similar, though. I replaced all the fuses and charged the battery. I've not had a problem (related to this since). My question, in hopes that it may help others diagnose your problem, is this. When the bike died, could you get any respons from the starter? When mine died I got none. And, if it sat for a while (hour or more), would it start up again?

Brad tt
 
My starter is strong. My headlight is strong. So... I"m kinda cluless. I do hvae three other ignition modules I could potentially try.... so we'll see about that.
 
Greg, change the fuses, regardless, and charge the battery. When mine died I had lights, but no power to the starter. I'd push the button and not even get a dim on the other lights. It's the cheapest fix and if doesn't work, you'll know and be able to move to the next possible problem area.

Brad tt
 
I already changed the fuses. Charging the battery is in order though. :-) Aaron drove it for a while so who knows what state that battery is in.
 
The next step I was considering was the starter solenoid. I never did change it since I was okay after the fuses and batt. Also, if you can afford the time, check your fuse block (behind the fuse connectors) for corrosion. If all is well there, you may want to check the connections for all the wiring (I haven't done this either, yet)! :wink:

Brad tt
 
I HATE my wiring harness.

did I mention I hate my wireing harness? Because I hate my wiring harness. I hate it with a passion. The previous owner hacked parts of it up, and to get around them I needed to make more hacks. And it looks pretty ratty now. Along with all the messes that come with spills, and age, it's probally time for a new harness.

I'm just debating replacnig every connector on the bike, or just replacing the wire lengths and doing a bunch of soldering. I think a trip to frys is in order to price connectors. From what I've seen, most of the wiring in the bike is actually a larger guage than I would choose to run in those applications. I wonder if 200' of 22 guage multistrand wire will cut the musterd... :-) That and a BUNCH of labels.

I'd like to go larger guage on the starter lead, and the wires that power the coils. And the headlight. We'll see what really happens. If I can get away with my stock harness till winter, I will. and when the GS goes into the basement this year, it will come out with a new wiring harness.
 
I know you work 4 - 12 tonight... get some sleep when you get home and about 10am saturday get up and we'll see if we can switch the ignitor box and see if that was the culprit...

Tonight if I can convince aaron to come over I'll see if I can get his starter clutch replaced.
 
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