Bike fell over and now blowing fuses like mad

[Guest]

Well, I did it. I was walking the bike out to the street to pop start it since my battery is low and I slipped on the wet pavement coming out of the driveway and nearly did the splits with the bike coming down on me. Get leg out from underneath 500 pound bike and get it up. No visible damage, little scratch on the right cover. Now I don't have any lights or power. I checked the fuses and the Ignition fuse had blown. I replace it and the main blows. Headlight works, gauge lights work. Replace the main and the ignition blows. The starter doesen't kick in now, no clicks.....nothing. Before the bike fell over it ran perfectly.

I ran through the wires and found a few fried wires that were touching so I trimmed them up, checked all connections. Cleaned up any suspicious ones. Headlight works, no signals but that may be because the battery is low. Still blowing fuses like mad....ran out of fuses to blow.

Perhaps the jolt killed my:

Electronic Ignition - Ignition fuse is blowing
Starter - Not working
Reg/Rec - I will try disconnecting them and see if fuses still blow
Starter solonoid - Jolted?
Starter button/kill switch - Jolted?

Bike was running great before......cranked over really fast. :x

[skreemer]

wouldn't happen to have a spare starter motor? I might be able to get someone that's really good with electrical work to look at it for you if we can get everyones schedule synched up...

[Planecrazy]

I did the last Brown County weekend without a starter motor ... get the other stuff figured out, and if the starter is your only remaining problem we'll deal with it...

Good Luck, and See You This Weekend!!
Steve 8)

[80gs1000e]

wouldn't happen to have a spare starter motor? I might be able to get someone that's really good with electrical work to look at it for you if we can get everyones schedule synched up...

No spare starter.... but I'm eying a few on Ebay. One is from an 1150, another from an 1100, and a 1000. Can a bad starter or one that was "jolted" cause fuses to blow? Or perhaps the starter solenoid? Could a bad reg/rec blow fuses?

I have a Dyna 3 I can slap on but don't want to just start replacing stuff without knowing the culprit.....gonna have to pull/check the starter.

MANNNNN.........bad timing with the ride this weekend.

[skreemer]

we've got an electrical guru making an emrgency stop at your place tomorrow I was asking about a starter becase he needs one... we think he lost a winding on his starter motor...

[80gs1000e]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. I'll cook and have coffee if y'all make it through. Gonna be late so if y'all can't make it thats cool too. I went out today and bought a crapload of 10 and 15 amp fuses....like every one they had. Dug through my secret parts box and came across a nice 1100 reg/rec, 1100 fuse panel, 1100 signal/light switch (so happens that riding with first timer the other night on a test run with his 1k my signal switch fell off....caught it and put in mouth for fixing later) and 2! nice clutch levers. I also have the Dyna III if I need it. No spare starter though, if thats the problem I hope I can have it rebuilt before Friday. I still will need to pull the starter switch to see if thats causing the short. Also need to trace the wires to the starter and check them.

Put my battery in the 550 and it fired right up, no sweat so I can ride that if I need to this weekend. Just used to the bigger bike and with a passenger its better.

I know its got to be something stupid....like almost doing the splits with a 500 pound slab of Japanese iron falling on you.

[first timer]

hey domino, rember.... i have a extra 1k motor with probly a good starter, you can borrow, you just need to come over and pull it.

-ryan

[Planecrazy]

Hey Dom,

Check the starter cover and see if the positive terminal has shorted out against it. When I rebuilt my 1100 starter the first time (while waiting for new parts) I failed to properly align the starter case when I put it back together (Psssst ... there are marks cast into the parts which I NOW know need to be aligned), and the positive post was in the wrong position.

The first time I tried starting the bike I discovered that the post had cut through the rubber boot and "spot welded" itself to the cover plate (and blew the associated fuse). It's possible that your starter was rebuilt incorrectly before you got the bike, and when you dropped it the jolt split the rubber boot and allowed the positive wire to short out.

Hope this solves at least some of your problems ... With regard to the signal switch, I'll be watching that left turn signal all weekend buddy -- I've got my eye on you!!

Steve 8)

[Nerobro]

Want a 550es to play with? *grins*

IT sounds like you tore something in the wiring harness. My 80 550 has a simmilar issue. I need to find the problem before this weekend.

Maybe we BOTH need to make new wiring harnesses this winter. Harness party anyone? I bet if we pool resources we could get new harnesses for oh... 30 a pop. And even make them lighter than stock.

[80gs1000e]

hey domino, rember.... i have a extra 1k motor with probly a good starter, you can borrow, you just need to come over and pull it.

WOW, thats good news if I need to go there. Thanks

Check the starter cover and see if the positive terminal has shorted out against it. When I rebuilt my 1100 starter the first time (while waiting for new parts) I failed to properly align the starter case when I put it back together (Psssst ... there are marks cast into the parts which I NOW know need to be aligned), and the positive post was in the wrong position.

The first time I tried starting the bike I discovered that the post had cut through the rubber boot and "spot welded" itself to the cover plate (and blew the associated fuse). It's possible that your starter was rebuilt incorrectly before you got the bike, and when you dropped it the jolt split the rubber boot and allowed the positive wire to short out.

Adding it to the list of things to check....thanks

Maybe we BOTH need to make new wiring harnesses this winter. Harness party anyone? I bet if we pool resources we could get new harnesses for oh... 30 a pop. And even make them lighter than stock.

Sweet....a harness party, one could interpret that a few different ways... non-stop action!

[80gs1000e]

OK, problem solved (toes and fingers crossed slightly). Isolated the blowing of the fuses to the right hand controls/kill start switch. Fully charged battery installed. Here's the deal:

Bike fell over on its right side where the handlebars probably took the brunt of the force of impact. I tried to slow the impact as much as I could but a 500 something pound bike full of gas is pretty heavy, especially with me under it.

When the ignition is turned on the main 15A or the Ignition 10A fuse would blow. I had lights, signals, horn but never a starter.

Bridged the starter solenoid with a screwdriver and starter turns over like normal, so no toasty starter (thank Jah almighty).

Unplug the right controls and no fuses blow. Cut wires to the right controls and cross wires, bike fires right up and no more blowing fuses. Module must have gotten whacked on impact.

Run extended wires from the harness hanging out just under the tank to act as a start button for now.....hillbilly engineering at its best. Cross wires to start bike.

Solution, get first timer to hook me up with a replacement start/kill unit from a 78/79 (push pull module) he had laying around. Gonna install it tonight hopefully and dissassemble the old one to see where the problem was. Then take hammer and smash defective disloyal unit.

After a few calls to GS homies for some perspective and advise I got it sorted and went for a test drive. Happy camper now!

[Planecrazy]

Glad the "hunch" worked, Dom!

Don't smash the old switcheroo ... if it's a simple fix you might still use it someday ... or loan it back to Ryan!!

Steve 8)

[Hoomgar]

Rock on! 8)

I was watching and hoping for you but had nothing to add until now. I agree with Steve, try to rebuild/repair the defective part, they are getting rare.

Glad you got it sorted bud