Help Fix Stupid - GS1100gk dead electrical problem

[dpatharry]

Be kind - I went to start up my GK & hooked the jumper/charger up backwards. Battery still has juice & all the 4 fuses are fine. But when I turn on the key, all the instrument lights stay dead - along with the starter.

What'd I probably do & how do I fix or check....

Thanks

[Dave8338]

It could be a melted main ground for the harness. A fusible link. There are several things that could be fried. You now get the fun of tracking it all down. I wish you well and suggest going to BassCliffs' site and finding a wiring diagram for your bike.

That just sucks!

[dpatharry]

Fusible Link

I'd like to try finding that first - is there a fusible link some place you could describe?

[Billy Ricks]

No fusible links that I know of. Do you have headlight, taillight, signals, or anything? On my bike the main hotwire actually hits the ignition switch before running through any fuses. This may get disputed but a close look at my diagram confirms this. You may have burned out the ignition switch itself.

[Billy Ricks]

Just for clarity the hot wire from my r/r splits off into two legs. One runs from the r/r to the battery after going through a 15 amp fuse. The other leg runs to the ignition switch without running through a fuse. From the ignition switch another wire runs back to the fuse block where it splits off and runs through three 10 amp fuses for the different circuits. If your fuses are all good I suspect your problem is either before the ignition switch or with the switch itself.

[dpatharry]

Thank you for the fast replies - will check out the ignition wires.

Should have asked sooner -- is it likely that I messed up the r/r? And would messing it up block power to the ignition & head? (I don't have any signs of power anywhere)

[Billy Ricks]

Thank you for the fast replies - will check out the ignition wires.

Should have asked sooner -- is it likely that I messed up the r/r? And would messing it up block power to the ignition & head? (I don't have any signs of power anywhere)

You may have messed up the r/r, you won't know without either running a static check on it measuring resistance or with the bike running and measuring voltage. You should still get power to the ignition switch though if your bike is wired anything like mine. How long did you have the cables hooked up wrong? If it was too long you may possibly have damaged the windings on the stator. I can post up some tests for the r/r and stator later if you need them. I'm on my laptop right now and my repair tips are on our desktop in a Word document.

[Billy Ricks]

One thing you can do to eliminate the ignition switch as the culprit is to use a battery and bypass the ignition switch. I'm fairly certain your hot wire to the ignition switch will be red and the wire that goes back to the fuse block will be orange. Take even a 12v car battery and connect the negative to the negative battery terminal. Then find the orange wire that goes into the fuse block and hook positive up to that. Even without the ignition switch on you should get power to pretty much everything. If you get power then I'd suspect a problem with the ignition switch. If you still don't get power then the problem is elsewhere.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Take off the tank, seat, and side covers. Have a good look at all the wiring. See if there is any melted insulation. If you have glass fuses, take a closer look. Sometimes they can look good even when they're open. Are you sure the battery is still good? How did you test it?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Billy Ricks]

Hi,

Take off the tank, seat, and side covers. Have a good look at all the wiring. See if there is any melted insulation. If you have glass fuses, take a closer look. Sometimes they can look good even when they're open. Are you sure the battery is still good? How did you test it?


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

I've been wondering if he didn't fry the battery myself. Just taking his word for it.

[BassCliff]

I've been wondering if he didn't fry the battery myself. Just taking his word for it.

Yep, I'm just going through a process of elimination. Start with the simple stuff.



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[chef1366]

I would double check the fuses.
I got ahold of a bike where someone did this and the wires from the ignition switch were all melted together.

[gremlin]

as bad as it sounds your going to need to check every wire, and connection. its allways best not to jump the bike. remove the battery and bring it up to full charge. is the best way to get a bike going. some times like when your out on a run and the battery goes flat then be very carefull on jumping the bike.

i had a guy fry his car, by jumping it off of my truck. 1000 cca batter in my truck would start his car with out his battery in line. told he nut to let his battery charge a bit befor even starting his car. he jumped in as soon as i hooked the cables up and started cranking. his alt then tryed to send 14 volts at max amps to charge his battery. his charging system started smoking.

the samething happens to motorcycles. just let a cars charging system charge the battery up. then start the bike. other wise your going to end up replaceing charging componitets and melted wires.

[Redman]

dpat,

Have just emailed you a color schematic for 82 GK.

I was wondering if you had both jumper calbes directly to the battery. Or if had one cable to one battery post and other jumper cable to bike frame ground? And if so, was the jumper to the positive or the negitive battery post? That might make you want to look more at the positive wiring or more at the ground wiring.

Anyway:
Look at some of the black/white (the ground) wires and the red wires (positive from R/R to battery).

I suspect you are going to find some ground wires burnt off. Look on top of the frame, under the seat, just behind the battery box. If that black/white wire is burnt-melted, you will also want to peel off some of the black tape and look in the main wiring harness to see if it melted the insulation on any wires noext to it.

Really isnt any fusable link, just ordinary wire that will melt if way too many amps. If you hooked positive jumper to negitive battery and then positive jumper to bike frame, that would fry the ground wiring on the bike.

.