Burned up on LSD

[Guest]

Had the bike running and took it for a ride on Lake Shore Drive here in Chicago - beautiful ride, that is until I smelled something electrical burning. The bike continued to run seemingly fine until I parked it. The next morning, however, I got no electrical sign of life. The battery (which is new) had water but there was a bit of yellow sulfery stuff near two of the filling plugs. Two questions here.

Can I try to push start it and ride it home? - should I disconnect the battery (or something else) if I do to prevent further damage?

What's the likely culprit?

Planning on going through the stator papers.

[Schweisshund]

Stop taking LSD :-D

[Steve]

You might be able to push start it, but you might also cause other problems. The regulator relies on a voltage from the battery to regulate properly. Without that input, no telling what might happen. This could happen if your battery is just plain shot or if it is removed from the bike.

I know it's a bit of a disgrace, but your best bet is to put it on a trailer and take it home. If you have an enclosed trailer available, nobody will see your GS going for a ride.

[bonanzadave]

I think we can assume its not charging. You may have a baked stator. Could be an electrical connector going into meltdown. Check the connector on the R/R.

[smagnusen]

When I first parked it I did a once over on the connections and the rr. The rr was warm but not egg-frying temp and all my connections seemed okay.

I was generating power at the time I turned it off (headlight on, plugs firing) correct? Absolutely no juice when I went to turn it back on. Doesn't this point to the r/r not the stator. Not too much point in speculating, though I'm hoping it's just the r/r so I can swap it out and keep riding.

[Nerobro]

it points to neither. if the bike kept running, the stator and r/r are fine. It sounds like your battery shorted or something.

[highmileage]

Around here, LSD means Lower Slower Delaware...

W/ apologies to Albert Hoffman (if you don't know who he is, there's always google).

It sounds like some wire is shorting to ground. It's okay for the bike to go home in the back of a pickup truck - dogs love it and Harleys do it all the time!

[hwb120240]

"Stop taking LSD :grin:
__________________
Think for yourself, question authority - Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary would never have said "Stop taking LSD" Lol

[Dave8338]

[quote=bonanzadave;688326]I think we can assume its not charging. You may have a baked stator. quote]

As long as it is the stator that is baked.......:-D

[robertbarr]

Can I try to push start it and ride it home? .

I don't see why not. It might require a good healthy push & an assistant packmule to help. Whatever the problem was, it didn't prevent you from continuing your ride (from the initial failure point on Lake Shore Drive). If it bump-starts, that pretty much rules out charging system problems anyway.

[Carter Turk]

I'd have to disagree with "if it bump starts that rules out a charging system problem"

My stator on my 1150 decided to quit on a 200 mile round trip. It decided to expire at 145 miles and I managed to ride it 45 miles by stopping every 6-10 miles and letting it cool off for 5 minutes then bump starting it until it died again.

I did this about 7 times and got about 10 miles from home when my battery said no more.

I called my wife and she brought me a battery I had sitting on the bench and I managed to get home.

[chef1366]

So am I. Was? Whatever :?

[robertbarr]

I'd have to disagree with "if it bump starts that rules out a charging system problem"

.

If the battery was shot (2 dead cells as described) and it ran anyway, what else could be (could have been) powering the ignition, headlight & other misc. loads?

[smagnusen]

Update: I took my Murray's cheapo multi-meter and a print-out of the stator papers troubleshooting flow-chart over to my bike and measured what I could with the bike not running. Here's what I found:

The stator resistance readings checked out. I had about 1.5 ohms between any two points and no connectivity to ground. I was not able to test output but I'm thinking that if the resistance is okay then chances are it'll generate juice.

The R/R on the other hand failed two out of three of the diode tests. I got different voltage results from different leads. Toasted.

I brought the battery home to charge, it was at 4 volts and I'm hoping it takes a charge. Ideally, I'll grab a honda R/R and a my charged battery, slap 'em in, and ride away. I called a local junk yard here in chicago and the guy wanted $75 for a honda R/R. Crumb. I'll have to order one and watch this beautiful chicago labor-day riding weather from the sidelines.

[Carter Turk]

Mr. Barr

I missed the part about the two cells in the battery. Just sharing my bump starting adventures, which there have been many.