Dead Motorcycle with lights...what happened?

[Guyver]

Last week I was returning home from Los Angeles with my son on my 1984 GS1150ES. We were within three to four miles of home on the freeway and the bike started to bog down. It acted as if something were sucked into the jets. I had power, just not much, and the bike sounded louder than usual. Think of that sound a bike makes as it is running out of gas and coming to a stop.

Since I still had power and I thought it was something in the carbs I tried to make it home. The bike completely died within a short time and I managed to coast into a rest area after a U-turn on the shoulder of the freeway. The bike has power, the lights are all bright and still it won't start. When you hit the start button there is nothing that happens.

I replaced the regulator/rectifier not long ago with a ((shudder)) Honda unit and there are two spots of what appears to be corrosion on the fins. The ground wire from it was loose; although not disconnected, and everything looks fine but the bike will not start. Could the stator have gone out? Would that cause this kind of problem?

[Dave8338]

Does the engine turn over with the starter? When bump started? If the stator was toast, you would see very dim lights if any at all.

[spyug]

I think we need a bit more info.

The losing of power at highway speed speaks to coil or ignition contol module and no starter could be solenoid, something in the starter sytem or wiring or bad battery.

A learned friend on the XS forum suggests 75% or better of bike electrical issues are to do with bad grounds. From your comments on the reg/rec ground I'd be suspicious of that and any other ground in your circuits.

I'd start by cleaning and reattaching that ground and cleaning your main battery ground connection. I have had this problem with my GS. tiny bit of corrosion at the battery terminal and she would start or even crank with a battery that showed fully charged at the posts.

Then I'd take a look at your battery. How old? full of fluid and able to hold a charge?

Put it on a trickle charger and check the resting charge. right off the trickle it might be 13.5 or better but will drop to high 12s quite quickly. If after a day or so of rest if it is mid 12's it is ok but if drops under it is suspect.

With a fully charged battery back in and good grounds any joy?

If no go can you jump the solenoid to get crank?

Can you give an update on these and let us know what else you may have done or notice.

Good luck with this,
Spyug.

[flyingace]

I guess I would start with eliminating worst case scenario. Put the bike in neutral, remove the spark plugs and the right side ignition cover. There's a large bolt on the end of the crankshaft. You should be able to spin the engine clockwise with relative ease. If you can't, or it's very difficult, you may have a seized piston, sucked valve, bad bearing - etc. etc. But at least you can stop looking at electrical and fuel delivery problems.

[chef1366]

This happened to me once and it turned out to be a bad kill switch.
I would check that, the ignition switch, grounds as stated earlier, all wiring including the headlight bucket and under the tank, fuse block and overall condition of the fuses. I've seen fuses that looked good but weren't.

[walt]

This happened to me once and it turned out to be a bad kill switch.
I would check that, the ignition switch, grounds as stated earlier, all wiring including the headlight bucket and under the tank, fuse block and overall condition of the fuses. I've seen fuses that looked good but weren't.

Good advice and check the ign black box. Both pick up coils seldom die at the same time but check them too. Our bikes can't run on just two cylinders.Then check the coils, spark plug leads and caps.

[chef1366]

If the ground wire was loose on the R/R I'd also check the igniter and coils as Walt stated. These are susceptible to spikes. But I would hope you would blow a fuse first.

[Guyver]

I'm sorry that I haven't been on the forum in a few days. I didn't receive any e-mails to indicate I had responses past the first one. This morning I removed the sidecovers and shorted across the solenoid. The bike cranks over just fine that way; however, it does not crank with the start switch. I assume that this means that there is a short somewhere in the starting circuit or could it be a bad ground?

[Guyver]

Got happy a little prematurely

I checked the fuses and found a blown ignition fuse so I fixed the loose ground from the rectifier and replaced the fuse thinking that had been the problem. Well, it apparently wasn't as the starter button is still dead. I guess maybe I blew the fuse by shorting the solenoid.

[Guyver]

I disassembled the starter switch today and cleaned up the contacts and applied dielectric grease. After that I reassembled it and replaced the ignition fuse, which apparently blows when you jump the solenoid. The bike started up and runs rough as if its missing on one cylinder. I think my original assessment was correct and the carbs sucked something into the jets. At least I hope that's it.

[walt]

electrical will not cause a carb problem. check for an electrical issue first. then check the carbs. sometimes our old bikes can deal us two bad cards at a time.

[Guyver]

Maybe it's the coils then? I have been hit with two problems at the same time before, which can be baffling. The carbs are brand new with maybe 500 miles on them now and I cleaned out my pod filters and oiled them before mounting the carbs so I was wondering how something could get in there. Good idea, I will check for good spark at the coils and run it down from there to the plugs and see if perhaps I fouled one. Maybe the electrical issue caused the bike to lose power and that in turn led to too much fuel and a fouled plug.

[SPARKSS]

We were within three to four miles of home on the freeway and the bike started to bog down. It acted as if something were sucked into the jets. I had power, just not much, and the bike sounded louder than usual.

The bike has power, the lights are all bright and still it won't start. When you hit the start button there is nothing that happens.

I replaced the regulator/rectifier not long ago with a ((shudder)) Honda unit and there are two spots of what appears to be corrosion on the fins. The ground wire from it was loose; although not disconnected, and everything looks fine but the bike will not start. Could the stator have gone out? Would that cause this kind of problem?

Hello Guyver. I keyed on a couple of areas of your description. Although your loss of engine power while underway could have been several things, once you shut down and then tried to restart, you noted that "nothing happens" which I took to mean that the starter isn't working either....and yet you say the lights are bright which indicate that you do have fair battery power. Troubleshoot why the starter won't work first as this is an easy circuit......keep in mind that the starter solenoid needs to have a ground connection that has good continuity/low resistance to the battery negative (which goes for any of the ground-return electrical loads. The starter pushbutton which operates that solenoid switch (to run the heavy current cranking motor) needs to see the kill switch circuit intact.....as does the ignition. Are you familiar with basic electrical theory and troubleshooting?

[Guyver]

I know enough about electrical systems to start a fire and I should be able to track this sucker down. The starter button is functioning again since I went through it and cleaned up the contacts. My next step is going to be checking the plugs to see if one or more fouled and then to see if I have good spark going to them from the coils. If that's all good then I don't think it's electrical.