Electric Phantom strikes

[Nomadman]

I just bought a 1980 GS550E which had been brought back to life after sitting for years. (850 miles on the working odo ???) Nice tight suspension and tranny but a slight wooble from the ME33 up front. So I'm riding back from the sellers place with the title in my pocket loving the sunset ride through the country to a friends place.... when the headlight goes out.

Uh (*&^%! I stopped, checked fuses & wiggled wires to no avail. Starts up fine and proceed to ride with no headlight through suburban Wallmart hell.... (way way scarrier than riding lost in India at night.) ..and made to my friends place. I try and restart the bike and now the starter just spins. The ignition lights are all on, the starter turns the motor over fast enough to help load it on the truck. I get home and the same.. turns over but no spark.

Just today, after trickle charging the new batt. I popped the side covers off and wiggled stuff and poked around... still no spark... then suddenly no ignition lights and now no starter! No tiny sparks when connecting the batt with ignition switch on or off!

&#$^$%! The main reason I bought this bike is because it seemed the electrical was fine. Damn Suzuki's!

So first the headlight goes... but still runs and has signals ect.... then the spark goes... but still have ignition lights and starter... then it dies completly!

When I calm down I'll go back and start cleaning grounds and checking the wiring on the fuse box and in the headlight (the only wiring that looked like it had been messed with....)

Any suggestions or insight into what I've gotten my self into here. Should I go and egg the PO house?

Thanks!

 

[Commodus]

Well, it's a 26 year old motorcycle.

You already know what to do, buy a multimeter and go to work:

When I calm down I'll go back and start cleaning grounds and checking the wiring on the fuse box and in the headlight (the only wiring that looked like it had been messed with....)

It has nothing to do with what brand of motorcycle it is.

 

[nabrams]

You probably had a bad R/R that was on the verge of over-voltage failure. When this happens the R/R slowly lets more and more voltage through, burning circuit after circuit. The kicker is that the fuses don't blow till about 18-20 volts. So the R/R can be letting 17.x volts through, burning stuff up.
After you get the ignition circuits working, run the bike on a fully charged battery with the charging system disconnected and all light circuits disabled (it should run for several hours this way before the battery gets depleted).
If all is OK, then shut the bike, and reconnect the charging system, and set up your multimeter at the battery terminals BEFORE starting the bike. Start the bike and read the voltage with the bike at 5000 RPM. If it's more than 15 volts then your R/R is toast - very common on these 26 year old bikes (Honda, Suzuki and others).

 

[Nomadman]

When this happens the R/R slowly lets more and more voltage through, burning circuit after circuit. The kicker is that the fuses don't blow till about 18-20 volts. So the R/R can be letting 17.x volts through, burning stuff up.

Whoa! The Phantom is working its way through the 550E's circuits... Disturbing... sounds about right though. The electrical seemed quite strong when checking out the bike. I was able to "drive" it up a ramp with the starter motor after the spark died. Yup, sounds like overvoltage to me.

Foolish of me not to put a meter on it, before riding it off into the Sunset. It definitely needed it's grounds cleaned.. but so far no happy ignition lights winking at me.

Thanks for your insight nabrams!

P.S. Perhaps it was bad form to "bad mouth" Suzuki electical systems on the GS forums.. but I recall nights in college with my 83 550E in the kitchen (no garage) with multi-meter and flood light. This way back when it was only 7 years old. I thought it was understood that Suzuki electrics have a bad Rep.. Undeserved or not,

 

[t3rmin]

Don't worry, I think we all agree the electrical system sucks.

 

[jimcor]

OK. You're into checking and poking and cleaning. Now throw away those old fuses. I know, they look fine. Throw 'em away. If your fuses got hot and the solder in the ends melted, common on these old bikes, because of a dirty fuse contact when it cooled it probably made only marginal contact. Clean the connections in the fuse box till they shine put in new fuses, take your battery off the charger and hopefully you ride into another sunset.

 

[Nomadman]

Now throw away those old fuses. I know, they look fine. Throw 'em away. If your fuses got hot and the solder in the ends melted, common on these old bikes, because of a dirty fuse contact when it cooled it probably made only marginal contact.

Yup, fuses were bad. Damn Good call.

I'm impressed with the simple wisdom I've recieved here.

Starter came after some serious ground cleaning
Headlight cameback after resoldering a bad connector in the fuse box
The ignition lights and turn signals came back after replacing old fuses that appeared good.

Now if I can just get some spark.... (I'll follow the Ingiter test in the manual) I can move onto flushing ALL the fluids and replacing tires THEN start chasing sunsets again.

Thanks again for the wisdom!