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help! 82 GS1100EZ stalled out while riding. electrical issue

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    help! 82 GS1100EZ stalled out while riding. electrical issue

    first off.... 1982 GS1100EZ in pretty good shape. battery is just a few months old (like 3?). i have had the
    bike about 5 years and never had any big electrical issues. bike has never broken down while riding or anything.

    i had ridden a bit earlier in the day, and almost every day in the last week. so i was riding yesterday evening and while i was riding the bike started to feel like it was out of gas. kind of sputtering almost, but i had just filled it earlier in the day. i had been going about 35 mph at the time. i then looked and realized the lights on the instruments had gotten really
    really dim. i pulled over and checked for anything obvious and found nothing. at this point the bike had been sitting a few minutes, i turned the key and the normal instrument lights, headlight etc seemed to be normal brightness. when i tried to start it, nothing. i could not get the horn to go and if i put on a turn signal it was like the whole system drained out. it
    did not go completely dark, but almost. since it's an 82 i have no kick start and i was on a slight downhill. i ran it a bit and dropped it in 2nd and got it to start. it ran, but barely. it felt like it was running really badly and the lights seemed to be off. when i would hit a red light i could not keep the bike going even by pulling the clutch and trying to rev it. for whatever reason it seemed to need the momentum of the moving bike to keep going as much as me feeding it fuel. after a few tries the bike stopped wanting to restart from push starting, so i pushed it to where i was going and did what i had to do. a few hours later i came back to it and the same thing. when i turned the key it kinda looked like the lights were ok, but i did not even have enough juice to blow the horn.... let alone get the
    starter to go. when i put on the turn signal everything would dim out and the signal was nowhere near flashing.

    i've never had a bike actually die while riding it like this. right now it is
    locked up a few miles from my house. i didn't have anything on me more than the tool kit and a leatherman. i have get to it with some tools and see what is going on. that would be a lot easier than hauling it back to my house (that would require enlisting one of my associates with a van).

    any ideas what might cause something like that? any suggestions on what to check first? the way it stalled out while i was moving seems kind of weird to me. when it was running it almost felt like it was not firing right or something was really off. is that a symptom of a specific component failure? with the 2 GS bikes i have owned i never actually had any of
    the quirky electrical issues some people have (till now?).

    thanks in advance for any pointers.

    #2
    You probably have a problem with the regulator. If the voltage drops low enough, the ignition won't fire properly. Could be a couple of other things, but the instrument lights share the same circuit, if I remember correctly.

    I think the best thing for you to do is sell the bike to me really, really cheap.
    JP
    1982 GS1100EZ (awaiting resurrection)
    1992 Concours
    2001 GS500 (Dad's old bike)
    2007 FJR

    Comment


      #3
      Recharge the battery & it should run properly. You need to check the charging circuit

      Comment


        #4
        You can check you regulator/rectifier by following the Suzuki procedure below.

        With the r/r removed from the bike, fins pointing up and terminals facing you, the terminals from left to right will be A, B, C, D, and E.
        Negative probe on A and positive on B you should get 6-7.5 ohms.
        Negative probe on A and positive on C you should get 6-7.5 ohms.
        Negative probe on A and positive on D you should get 6-7.5 ohms.
        Negative probe on A and positive on E you should get 50-70 ohms.

        Then switch the negative probe to terminal B and place the positive probe on A, C, then D, you should get no reading. Positive on E should read 6-7.5 ohms.

        Switch negative probe to C and positive to A, B, then D, you should get no reading. Positive on E should read 6-7.5 ohms.

        Switch negative probe to D and positive to A, B, then C, you should get no reading. Positive on E should read 6-7.5 ohms.

        Switch negative probe to E, positive to A, B, C, and D should give no reading.

        The numbers have to be within range. It doesn't take much of an out of range reading to lead to the wrong output.

        Stator Test

        The testing procedure for my 700, yours will be the same, involves disconnecting the three stator wires and running the bike at 5,000 rpm. You then place the probe of a multi-tester in each of the three wires. + probe in one terminal and - probe in another. Keep the + probe on the same wire and check the other two with the - probe. Then move the + probe to the next wire and check the other two with the - probe. Again + on the remaining wire. Check each of the wires against each other two this way. I'm not sure what voltage you should look for on an 1100, my 700 calls for 80 volts AC. You should get consistent readings on each attempt. These are the three yellow wires under the gas tank.You want to test the ends of the wires coming out of the starter cover under the carbs.

        You can do a continuity check using the same procedure. With the motor off and the tester set to check for continuity check each wire against the other two. You should get a tone if the stator is okay as far as any breaks. You can test for shorts by testing each with one probe on the wire and the other on the frame. If you get a tone or meter reaction.

        Comment


          #5
          Ya know...its funny....the more you read about GS problems in this forum
          the more your bike starts developing the symptoms

          johnpaul215...your problems are exactly what happened to me.
          Both my stator and R/R were toast. Good luck.

          Comment


            #6
            the battery is on the trickle charger right now. i'll do some investigation after work today. when i got to the bike yesterday evening (it's not at my house) and turned the key the battery was totally dead. i'll see if the battery takes a charge, but i have a feeling i am going to have to haul the bike home. at least it'll be easier to work on it there.

            Comment


              #7
              Make sure to check all the fuses, and the blades that the fuses connect into for corrosion. Also, take the fuse block off and check the backside to make sure there's no corrosion. And as Lynn said, recharge the battery and check the level of the electrolyte. Also, if the battery is old, you may want to consider replacing it.

              I had a very similar thing happen a few weeks ago, and it ended up being old fuses and a low battery.

              Brad tt

              Comment


                #8
                ok, so first off the battery would not take a good charge from my 1 amp trickle charger. so i went out and bought battery number 3 for the season (well, the first was just a bad battery i think).

                i did the testing procedures in:


                conclusion: bad R/R. i will be ordering a new one tonight.

                the plastic connector between the stator and the R/R is totally usable, but definitely got really freakin hot. you can see some discoloration of the plastic and some of it is a little melted. the contacts are totally clean and shiny. when i was doing the testing procedure i noticed the wires between stator and R/R were really warm or maybe getting hot (the connector too). i just ran the bike long enough to get readings.

                while i know the R/R is bad, would it have caused that or should i look for some rogue wiring issue too? from what i looked at i did not find anything. i know there could be something sneaky though. the previous owner got the bike in 1984 or something and took very good care of it.

                i guess i can keep an eye on that when i get my new R/R and see if it is still hot?

                Comment


                  #9
                  The wires will normally get warm, with bad connection at the plug they can get hot. I prefer to eliminate the plug

                  Comment


                    #10
                    As Lynn said, eliminate the plug. Either solder the wires directly to the R/R or use solder type connectors and attach each wire individually. It doesn't matter what order the yellow wires from the stator are attached and long as the red and black wires go to the correct terminals. If you attach each wire with connectors make sure you insulate the connectors.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      It's a good idea to run a ground wire directly from RR neg. to battery neg. and some folks also run a separate hot wire directly from RR red. to battery positive. Use wire that's heavy enough to carry the load.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        where have you guys bought you R/R from? i ordered mine July 19th from electrosport.com and found out they would not have any for at least 15 days. they suggested i could find another place that had them for sale. i contacted bikebandit.com and used their online help live chat thing to see if it was in stock. they told me they had 3 in stock but that did not reflect any bought that day. because of the time of day i figured the odds of 3 other guys buying a R/R for a 1980-1983 GS1100E in the previous 5 hours were slim. well i was wrong. out of stock, but they told me they had one from an alternate source and it would just take an extra 3 days to get it to them and then off to me. that was 9 days ago. today i just got an email saying it is on backorder indefinitely and there are none in north america.

                        is there any place to find one of these? i checked ebay and even looked for an oem to use in the meantime. i have not found other people that sell them online to try to track one down. this has been the longest 3 weeks. ugh.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I deal with the guys at "Willies Cycle" for used parts through work. I do not have the number on me right now at home but PM me and I can send you it tomorrow. THey are located in Alabama and have a 256 area code, a yahoo search may turn up the number.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            A lot of us use Honda R/R's and they are e-bay plentyful.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              well it turns out that "none available in north america" does not include the autonomous empire of dennis kirk. they had 6 in stock and i got it in 2 days. about the same price as anywhere. $121 with 2nd day air, and DK ships same day you order. i guess i should have checked there right off, but for some reason i did not think they sold them. they were the 3rd place i ordered one from, and you know what they say........

                              i had to go out an get longer mounting screws so i'll go finish up the install now. hopefully i will be riding and not playing online for the rest of the day/night. i got three weeks of summer riding to make up for.

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