Please Help! My bike just stalled-no electrical power

[earlfor]

Hmmmm, thats a puzzle. With the Stator and R/R disconnected, the only thing that would be powered up with the ignition switched on would be the coils and ignitor box. If you disconnect the + lead to the coils and the + lead to the ignitor, your power consumption should be zero.

Earl

Yup.


At least I think so......I wasn't there.

After reconnecting everything except the stator/ R-R, it started several times, and ran fine for a few minutes. Carmen keeps the bike in a wonderful state of tune, and it starts very quickly, even cold, so there was little amperage draw on the start circuit.

After that, we re-checked the battery and found it had lost about 3/4 of 1 volt....which seemed OK to me after the multiple starts and a few minutes of running.


The subsequent blown fuse was an embarrassment....I had mentioned checking the horns, but did not do so, as we had determined the R/R and stator were shot, and other wires in the harness that led to the front of the bike were OK, plus the bike was running well.

[argonsagas]

Thanks, Earl. I am glad someone else is puzzled.

The horns remain a possibility, but all the fuses are 10 amps, except the main, so the 10 amp light circuit fuse should have blown, not the 15 amp main.

There would be a large amperage draw if it were the starter, but I cannot conceive how the starter would draw anything once the bike was running, as it only gets electrical power when the solenoid/relay is charged. Even then it is a single-flow connection, as solenoid activation triggers a magnetic switch that then allows the current to flow from the battery direct to the starter, but otherwise does exactly nothing, electrically.

Could it be a faulty relay/solenoid? Maybe. But that would also mean a faulty starter switch that was completing the circuit without rider input. Otherwise, there is no power at the solenoid to do anything.

Is there something else, farther up into the harness, that has gone wrong?
Could be, but it is intermittent, and while the Stator/ R-R problem caused wire melting, the other(?) problem does not do that....yet it blows main fuses, and leaves the other circuits intact.

Yes...I checked the fuse box. It has no shorts.

[earlfor]

I agree, if the starter solenoid/relay was energized, the starter would
engage and it would be very difficult not to notice that. :-) According to my wiring diagram, the first branch off the main is the R/R (you have that disconnected) The next connection is input + to the ignition switch.
The solenoid lead passes power on to the ignition, so if the solenoid is at fault, the fuse should blow even if the ignition is turned off. If its not blowing the fuse with the ignition switched off, I would remove and jump directly to battery + terminal, the + lead on the relay that feeds the ignition switch. Doing this would remove the solenoid from the test.
If then switching on the ignition still results in the main fuse blowing, I would switch the key position to park and replace the fuse and see if it still blows. There are 4 main wires coming out of the ignition switch, in on position, all four are energized. In park, only two wires are energized.
The key position will narrow down the circuits involved. I'm thinking you may have a fused, backfeeding bridge somewhere. Its about the only thing that seems plausible. Still thinking........................... :-)

Earl

Thanks, Earl. I am glad someone else is puzzled.

The horns remain a possibility, but all the fuses are 10 amps, except the main, so the 10 amp light circuit fuse should have blown, not the 15 amp main.

There would be a large amperage draw if it were the starter, but I cannot conceive how the starter would draw anything once the bike was running, as it only gets electrical power when the solenoid/relay is charged. Even then it is a single-flow connection, as solenoid activation triggers a magnetic switch that then allows the current to flow from the battery direct to the starter, but otherwise does exactly nothing, electrically.

Could it be a faulty relay/solenoid? Maybe. But that would also mean a faulty starter switch that was completing the circuit without rider input. Otherwise, there is no power at the solenoid to do anything.

Is there something else, farther up into the harness, that has gone wrong?
Could be, but it is intermittent, and while the Stator/ R-R problem caused wire melting, the other(?) problem does not do that....yet it blows main fuses, and leaves the other circuits intact.

Yes...I checked the fuse box. It has no shorts.

[argonsagas]

Earl, again I thank you.

Backfeed was something I mentioned to him when we first discussed the problem, and before disconnecting anything. It was my first idea that one or more wires from the stator were doing this, or maybe the diode in the R/R had fried and was somehow shunting current in the wrong direction.

After disconnecting the stator and R/R, however, I don't see how it can happen as everything is DC and, apart from the coils, there is nothing to either draw or generate sufficient power to push back into the circuit.

All this brings us back to the starter solenoid, so I will isolate that, as you suggested. Unfortunately, this will have to wait another week as we don't yet have replacement stator and R/R....and the weather for the weekend is questionable. I got a bit of rain on the way home from the barber, just a few minutes ago.

[kinch]

This is one of the things that makes this site so great. The last post in this thread was 2003 but it came up in a search about an electrical problem that I was having and thanks to it I discovered that my bike wouldn't power because my horn was touching my throttle cable which was, in-turn, touching the frame. Cue electrical chaos.

Replaced a cooked connector and the main fuse (which looked perfect until I decided to replace it anyway on advice of this thread and it came apart at the slightest touch when I removed it) and the bike fired up like a beast.

Once again, well done to the mighty GS forums and the many wise souls that inhabit it.

[chef1366]

The Zombie thread!

[mmtallman]

Heh, seems the zombie thread rears its not-so-ugly head again - I too am having a similar problem, started after hitting some rain last August (yes, LAST August, haven't had the time nor patience to work on it since) and the bike died. Found the main fuse was toast. Tried a new one - toasted that one too, ad nauseum. Today was the first day I had a chance to mess with it again, pulled apart the fuse block, cleaned it good, still blew, swapped the fuse block - blew again. At least I know that's not the problem.

Tomorrow will be nice again and I'll try some of the tips in this thread. It does "appear" that when cranking it over is when it blows, doesn't do it consistently (i.e. as soon as you hit the starter button), but I didn't have the time to keep trying it. Vaguely last fall I think it blew when I turned the key on, but not 100% sure.