No power to the cluster

[Nick]

I went outside to mess with the bike a little and i turned the key on and nothing on the cluster came on; no lights nothing. Not even the head light turned on. The battery was charged from 11:20 yesterday till about 10 min ago. My friend came over last night to look at it and im almost afraid he pulled something loose on it when trying to spread his BS know how on me. He thinks he's the best thing under the sun when it comes to mechanics... so yeah he's not coming near my bike. Anyone know what could be wrong?

[catbed]

shotgun for your friend, fuses for your bike. check 'em.

j/k about the first part. but seriously:shock:

[jadesystem]

This sounds like a ground issue. The wires that ground and complete
the instrumentation circuit are black and white. Check this throughout
with respect to ground. Check frame ground thru the neg terminal of
the battery.

Check your cluster harness, ignition switch continuity, main fuse, and
for a loose wire. Get a wiring schematic to troubleshoot your circuit
so you have a roadmap to reference off of.

:-D:-D

[Nick]

ok, i tried shorting out the solenoid and and neutral light would flicker while it cranked, no clue if thats important or not but i felt like saying it. I'll go check the grounds again

[jadesystem]

Of course it will turn, as you are bypassing and shorting the starter solenoid to crank the engine. Try to locate the ground as power to
the unit cluster is the issue here. Use a DMV to verify 12VDC at
the components or remove the battery terminal, and check
for continuity throughout the cluster circuit wit the schematic.
The black and white wires are the grounding that completes the
circuit in the cluster. It starts at the fuse block terminal via the
ignition switch. The 15A main is just that, and the 10A (headlight)
you can trace to your headlite circuit.

You will see this black and white wire originate throughout to the
dummy bulbs, gauges, headlite, taillite, electrical tach (if applicable),
etc.... It is very extensive T/S but you will gain an immense knowledge about your bike's electronics and circuitry. It is not hard, just time consuming.

:-D

[Nick]

ugh looks like i have a hand full before i goto work. I'm going to have to eat a pizza or 2 before hand! So what your saying is take the battery out and look in there for anything wrong then take off the cluster and check the grounds? I checked the frame ground and thats tight as well as the two in the back on the blinker bolts.

[jadesystem]

This is probably the most important grounding advice for you - the grounding from the harness wiring bus must be grounded at
the frame, and NOT at the RR side panel portion where the
ground is isolated. I've seen this, and can easily be overlooked.

I cannot see your wiring, but can only assume it is common with
Suzukis engineering and mindset. So I'm referencing off of my
experience working on both the GS1100 and GSS1150.

Let me know your status !! :-D

[Kcwiro]

Never fun....

There is a bundle in your bucket that has the wires for the backlighting...believe it is a four prong for ignition and the actual bulbs on mine anyway have a gray and black/white wire that runs the bulbs... for your oil pressure light if the wire is still attached to the sender there is a green/yellow strip one on right of the airbox that should be coming out of a heat shield that runs under the bike from the oil press sender...sounds like you have your neutral light working but if the guy is loose that guy can be easily found by looking at your crank cover for the stator wires heading out of it teh gear position sensor is also in that same group and they snake up to under your tank area the gear position sensor has a *think* five prong connector with a blue wire going into a bullet connector on its own... that guy is your neutral wire. Tmwnni and I redid my entire wiring harness so I had to become an expert at reading my schematics... hopefully yours are simular.

Have fun and good luck with the electrical gremlins... hide gizmo:-D

[Nick]

ugh it sounds like i should just do it tomorrow. I have a few hours before i have to goto work but i'll take the tank off and see what i can find. Anyone know of an 80-82 GS450 pdf vrsn of the schematic? That would help me a TON.

[Kcwiro]

I think the addy is repairmanualclub.com you should be able to find a manual on there that you can download with a registration on the site. I have one I believe on my home computer that I can try to email to you when I get home around 11pm tonight... but that site is where I downloaded it from and you might get it faster on your own as opposed to waiting for me to send it via email.

Just my .02 let me know if you want me to do that for you tonight and PM me the email that can take the attachment. Though most email systems do not let attachments that big go through sometimes depending on who you are paying.

Anyhoo let me know

[Nick]

i downloaded the manual but i cant read the wire diagram... This electrical stuff is going to be a hand full lol Oh and in addition I took out the headlight to see if everything was hunkydory in there and it is. The grounds on the blinker stuff up front are good. I just have to take off the starter button thing to see how that is. That's tomorrow project.

[Nick]

i checked over the bike and there's nothing loose! I could start it up and it would run (with a little throttle) just fine but now this happens! How could this be?! From just sitting there in the garage how could something like this go loose. I mean i checked the start button switch thing and nothings wrong in there, i took out the headlight to see if anything was unplugged or loose but all was good in there, all the grounds on the blinkers are good as well as the frame mount. I took the gas tank off and checked all of those connectors and their all good. I'm going to look at the... what is it like the ONLY fuse on this bike? The one that's on the starter wire that links to the solenoid. That could be the problem. The way to tell if its bad is if it's black inside (burnt out)?

[chef1366]

I've seen fuses that looked good but weren't. Everything to me points at a fuse.

[Nick]

ok sweet! Everything is golden on the bike electrical wise. I just took apart the cluster and every thing's connections are tight. I even stripped out a screw on accident but good thing i have a dremmel to cut into it. Anyway I found someone to help me with my carbs and with the way tomorrow is looking i just may be able to get it done since the weather's saposed to be shotty. We may home some of those old tube fuses around here but i may not. I think its a 15 amp correct?

[Nick]

someone punch me in the face hahaha. It didnt get to me until now. When i was hooking the battery back up the black wire (negative?) smacked the frame and made fireworks! THAT blew the fuse. I had that darn bike apart like none other yesterday and i was even working on it when i got home from work at 1:30 this morning. I'll be getting me a 15 amp fuse when i come home from swimming with my lady friend (HOT HOT ukranian)

Help i've been owned!