Zero electricity = not much fun

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone. I hope someone can help me with this issue. I recently bought a 1980 GS1000G with a few problems. The fork seals leaked, it needed a new battery, and a little tinkering here and there. No big problem. The fork seals are being taken care of as I speak, and I just put a new battery in last week. I haven't ridden it since I test drove it, because of the seals and battery, but every day or two I will fire it up to keep the engine fresh (or really cause I like hearing it run ). The engine runs like a dream with only 30,000 miles on it. Anyway, yesterday I took the throttle grip assembly apart and cleaned the starter button contacts because they were a little corroded. That's the only meddling I have done with the electrical system. Today, when I inserted the key and turned to "on," no lights came on. None of the usual headlight, gear indicator, or turn signals, etc. worked. The battery has a perfect charge on it, all the fuses are good. I tested them for a complete circut and they all checked out. Some of them were the wrong amperage, though. In two of the 10A spots (headlight and signal) there was a 15 and 20 amp fuse (I don't know which was in which spot). Is it possible that having the wrong fuse burned out some wiring? It happened so suddenly. One day it worked, and the next. . .nothing electrical on the bike works! PLEASE HELP!!

Thanks,
Ben

[fgh]

Yeah using a fuse with a higher amperage can lead to burned out wires. It doesn't blow when it should and things heat up and burn out. But since it was running OK when you turned it off and then was dead at the next use I would doubt it was a wire burn out. If everything was working OK then you didn't have an overload. I've found with stuff like this its best to get a manual with a wiring diagram and start tracing the circut until you find the problem. My bet would be that since you've got nothing and are getting power through the box your problem is in the switch. LOL

[gspaul]

Allmost all wireing run's through the headlight, you could have pulled the connecting block for the ignition.

[Anonymous]

The engine cut-off switch? And what "box" are you referring to?

Thanks for your help!

[duaneage]

I have a green connector in the headlight bucket for the ignition switch, it is the only green connector in there and that makes it easy to find. I bet you pulled it loose a little bit.

[Poot]

Probably a problem in the headlight bucket. Clean electrical connections (and make sure they're connected!)

[Anonymous]

Problem Fixed!!

Thanks for everyone who responded to my post. It turned out to be #1: a bad battery which wouldn't hold a charge, and #2 a wire that came disconnected from the relay to the starter.

Thanks for your suggestions. they were helpful!